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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



PRINCIPLES OF 

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

AND THEIR APPLICATION 



BY 

FRANK P. BACHMAN, Ph.D. 

SOMETIME ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

MEMBER OF NEW YORK SCHOOL INQUIRY, AUTHOR OF "PROBLEMS 

IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION," ETC. 



D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



X^'' 

^-^'6 



Copyright, 191 5, 
By D. C. Heath & Co. 



SEP 25 1915 

S)CI.A411{)96 

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PREFACE 

This book seeks, first, to set forth the principles of elementary 
education, and second, to apply these to the work of the 
elementary school. 

To establish the principles of elementary education, and to 
bring to view what is implied in them, a study is made in Part 
I of the relation between the individual and society, also of the 
nature of the mental life of the child, of how the child develops, 
and of how he learns. 

Part II seeks to determine, in the light of the principles de- 
veloped, the aim of elementary education, the curriculum of 
the elementary school, the methods of elementary instruction, 
and the organization of the elementary school. 

The effort made to establish the principles of elementary 
education, the conception held of the inter-relation between the 
individual and society, the theory of human nature and of 
human development set forth, the social or national aim of 
education advanced, the analysis of the learning processes, and 
the methods of instruction presented are among the distinctive 
features of this book. 

The materials offered are sufficient for a three-hour course 
during two terms or a five-hour course for one term. The 
book may be used in two ways. First and preferably, it may 
be followed chapter by chapter. Second, where students pur- 
pose to give only a short period to preparation and desire to 
concentrate more particularly upon class teaching, a course in 
the Principles and Methods of Elementary Instruction may be 
given by taking Sec. 4 of Chapter IV, and Chapters V, VIII, 
and IX. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
THE PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

CHAPTER I 

The Relation of the Individual to Society 

PAGE 

1. The Problem 3 

2. Society and Its Characteristics 3 

3. The Problem Restated 5 

4. The Individual and the Existence of Society 5 

5. The Individual and the Development of Society 11 

6. The Individual and the Aim of Society 18 

7. Conclusions 22 

CHAPTER II 

The Relation of Society to the Individual 

1. The Individual and his Characteristics 23 

2. The Problem Restated 25 

3. Society and the Existence of the Individual 25 

4. Society and the Development of the Individual 32 

5. Society and the Aim of the Individual 40 

6. The Reciprocal Relation Between Society and the Individual 48 

7. Educational Inferences 49 

8. Educational Principles 50 

CHAPTER III 

The Nature of the Psychical Life of the Child 

1. The Problem 52 

2. The Aspects of Psychical Life 52 

V 



vi CONTENTS 

PAGE 

3. TheWm 54 

4. The Intellect 75 

5. Knowledge 85 

6. Educational Inferences 89 

7. Educational Principles 90 



CHAPTER IV 

The Psychical Development of the Child 

1. The Problem 92 

2. The Factors that Develop 92 

3. The Periods in Psychical Development 93 

4. The Process: The Acquisition of Knowledge 96 

5. The Process: The Accfuisition and Use of Knowledge and 

Will Development 116 

6. The Process: The Acquisition of Knowledge and the De- 

velopment of the Intellect 123 

7. The Process: Will and Intellectual Development 130 

8. Unity in Process of Psychical Development 131 

9. The Process of Psychical Development 131 

10. Educational Inferences 132 

11. Educational Principles . ^ 133 

., CHAPTER V 
The Learning Processes 

1. The Problem 135 

2. The Inductive Perceptual Process of Learning 135 

3. The Inductive Conceptual Process of Learning 140 

4. The Deductive Perceptual Process of Learning 144 

5. The Deductive Conceptual Process of Learning 149 

6. The Learning Processes Abridged and Unabridged 155 

7. Range and Period of Operation 155 

8. Educational Principles 156 



CONTENTS vii 

PART II 
APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES 

CHAPTER VI 
The Meaning and Aim of Elementary Education 

PAGE 

1. The Problem 162 

2. The Meaning of Education 162 

3. The Aim of Education 168 

4. The Aim of Elementary Education 176 

CHAPTER VII 
The Curriculum of the Elementary School 

1. The Problem 182 

2. The Materials of the Curriculum 182 

3. Factors Determining the Curriculum 183 

4. Determination of Elementary School Curriculum by Society. 183 

5. Determination of Elementary School Curriculum by the Child 199 

6. Determination of Elementary School Curriculum by Society 

Versus its Determination by the Child 205 

CHAPTER VIII 

Methods of Elementary School Instruction 

1. The Problem 209 

2. The Inductive Perceptual Method of Instruction 209 

3. The Inductive Conceptual Method of Instruction 219 

4. The Deductive Perceptual Method of Instruction 228 

5. The Deductive Conceptual Method of Instruction 232 

6. Methods of Instruction Abridged and Unabridged 238 

CHAPTER IX 
The Lesson Plan and Illustrative Plans 

1. The Problem 240 

2. The Lesson Plan 240 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

3. Illustrative Inductive Perceptual Lesson Plans 244 

4.. Illustrative Deductive Perceptual Lesson Plans 256 

5. Illustrative Inductive Conceptual Lesson Plans 262 

6. Illustrative Deductive Conceptual Lesson Plans 275 

7. Lesson Plans Abridged and Unabridged 282 

CHAPTER X 
The Organization of the Elementary School 

1. The Problem 285 

2. Factors Conditioning the Organization of the Elementary 

School 285 

3. The Child as a Factor 286 

4 Instruction as a Factor 288 

5. Society as a Factor 289 

Index 297 



PART I 
PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 



THE PRINCIPLES OF 
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

CHAPTER I 
THE RELATION OF THE INDIVmUAL TO SOCIETY 

§ I. The Problem 

The majority of books on education treat the subject 
as if the school had to do only with what is needed to secure 
the development and highest life of the individual. We 
have, however, come to see that the school has to do also 
with the interests and purposes of society. The recogni- 
tion that the school has to do with society as well as the 
individual has introduced into the study of education 
two questions: (i) What is the relation of the individual 
to society, and (2) What is the relation of society to the 
individual? 

To consider these relationships and to formulate the 
insights gained through these studies, becomes our first 
task. It is with the relation of the individual to society 
that we begin. 

§ 2. Society and its Characteristics 

A human society is a group of people dwelling together, 
who have a common country, common institutions, com- 
mon ideals and purposes, such as the Enghsh, the French, 
the Germans, or the people of the United States. 



4 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

It is not merely the fact of a people living together 
that makes a society. It is rather their dwelling together 
in psychical relations. By psychical relations is meant 
the appreciation, on the part of each member of the group, 
of emotional bonds binding him to the whole, the recog- 
nition by each individual that his conduct must conform 
to given standards of action, the recognition that each 
member of the group has duties with reference to him and 
that he is under corresponding obHgations to them. It 
is the appreciation, on the part of its members, of such 
psychical relations that is distinctive of society. For this 
reason, a human society is regarded as a psychical organ- 
ization. That is, it is an organization in which the bonds 
holding its members together are emotional and mental, 
and not chemical as with water, nor mechanical as in the 
case of a pile of bricks. 

As a psychical organization, society is not static. The 
relations between men within it undergo change. Im- 
provements occur in standards of conduct, in what is 
regarded as the citizen's duties to his fellows and to the 
social whole. Puritan ideas of conduct and duty, for 
example, are not the ideas of the present. The form of 
society may also change. In one age, a given society 
may be an oligarchy, in another it may be a monarchy, 
while in still another, it may be a democracy. France 
is illustrative. Society is thus a living thing, subject to 
change and development. 

Again, an organization has an end or purpose. That 
of certain organizations, like charity associations, is found 
apart from any direct benefits the members may derive. 
As a rule, however, the purpose of an organization, for 
example a labor union, or trust, or fraternal order, is to 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY 5 

further the interests of its members. This is particularly 
true of society; it not only has an aim, but its aim is to 
be found in the life and welfare of its members. 

§ 3. The Problem Restated 

If it is accepted that the distinctive characteristics of 
a human society are that it is a psychical organization, 
that it is capable of growth and development, and that 
it finds its aim in the welfare of its members, it ought to 
be clear that genuine appreciation of the relation of the 
individual to society must rest upon insight into his rela- 
tion to these characteristics. For this reason, we are able 
to limit our problem and to resolve it into a study of the 
relation of the individual to the existence of society as a 
psychical organization, into a study of his relation to its 
development and to its end or aim. 

§ 4. The iNDivrouAL and the Existence of Society 

1. The Distinguishing Mark of Man. — Many efforts 
have been made to point out what quality distinguishes 
man from other creatures. Some hold this mark to be 
the upright position of his body; others, that it is his free 
hands; others, that it is language; and the list might be 
lengthened to include laughter, sympathy, choice, and 
voHtion. Whatever arguments there may be in favor 
of one or the other of these characteristics, there is a 
growing opinion that the quality which distinguishes man 
more than any other is the higher powers of his intellect. 

2. Higher Powers of the Human Intellect. — Certain 
of the higher powers of the human intellect are of impor- 
tance in this connection. 



6 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

The first of these is self-consciousness. By self-con- 
sciousness is meant the consciousness of one's bodily states, 
feelings, thoughts, and actions as one's own, and the 
idea of one's self as a self that existed yesterday, exists 
today, and will exist tomorrow. 

A second is the capacity to learn by ideas. Learning 
by ideas in the fullest sense impHes sensation, perception, 
memory, imagination, and in particular the mental func- 
tions of comparison, abstraction, and generalization. 
Endowed with the capacity to learn by ideas, the individ- 
ual is able to acquire knowledge of himself and of the 
external world, and able so to direct his actions in the 
light of the knowledge gained as to satisfy his needs. 
Through this capacity, he is also able to imagine possible 
experiences, to reflect upon them, and to pass judgment 
upon their desirability; in a word, he is able to conceive 
and project ends and to devise means of attaining them. 

3. Higher Powers of the Human Intellect and Society. — 
It is the human intellect with its higher powers that makes 
more than the simplest forms of social life possible. It does 
this in that it supplies, first, the needed emotional bond. 
Man is endowed with sympathy, sociality, and an in- 
stinctive sense of justice. These instinctive tendencies 
are of themselves strong enough to supply the emotional 
bond required by a social order even higher than that of 
bees, beavers, and other animals. Though native sym- 
pathy leads the individual to give aid to his family and to 
the members of his group, it does not keep him from being 
uninterested in those not known to him. Likewise with 
the social instinct, it inclines the individual to live in 
peace with the members of his clan and even with the 
members of his tribe, but it does not deter him from in- 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY 7 

flicting outrages upon those not bound to him by ties of 
blood or fellowship. Similarly with the instinctive sense 
of justice, it leads the individual to a semblance of justice 
so long as he is dealing with his family, clan, or with his 
equals, but this native sense of obligation does not extend 
beyond his social group or to those different in race or 
station. 

Something more than instinctive sympathy, sociality, 
and sense of justice is necessary to the existence of a society 
such as that of the American people. There is need of 
a sympathy extending to the farthermost member of the 
social whole, however unrelated he may be by family or 
racial ties. Witness the sympathy extended to the victims 
of the earthquake in Italy and to the sufferers in the 
European war. There is need of a sociality that inclines 
the individual to live at peace with his fellows and disposes 
him to cooperate with other members of the nation for 
the attainment of social ends. The presence of this feeling 
is evidenced in our social order by the peacefulness of 
private life and by the ready response to public call in 
times of social want. There is need also of a sense of jus- 
tice so keen that the individual feels ''a man's a man for 
a' that," and in duty bound to treat him justly notwith- 
standing race, color, or station. 

It is only as native sympathy, sociality, and sense of 
justice are acted upon by the higher powers of the intellect 
that they are broadened and deepened. For example, 
sympathy, which extends naturally to those of one's 
immediate group only, may be broadened under the 
influence of intelligence to include the members of the 
community and of the nation, and it may even be so broad- 
ened as to extend to man wherever he may dwell. Similarly 



8 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

with instinctive sociality and justice. It is in thus acting 
upon these social instincts and in giving them the needed 
breadth and depth that the intellect supplies the emo- 
tional bond necessary to the existence of other than the 
lower orders of social life. 

Second, social life among men also implies an intellec- 
tual bond. Among primitive peoples, this is furnished by 
their idea of relationship. Only those persons are included 
within the tribe who are joined by ties of blood or adoption. 
Even when tribes were federated, as among the early 
Greeks or the American Indians, the bond of union was an 
imaginary relationship to a common ancestor. Among 
civilized people, however, ties of real or imaginary re- 
lationship are ignored as well as those of racial differences, 
and the bond of social union becomes one of principles and 
of ideals. The principles and ideals serving as the bond 
of union for the American Colonies in 1776 were set forth 
in the Declaration of Independence and embodied later 
in the Constitution, the preamble of which runs: *'We, 
the People of the United States, in order to form a more 
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
quillity, provide for the common defence, promote the 
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our- 
selves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America." Similar 
declarations are to be found in the constitutions of modern 
nations. 

Not only does social life among men presuppose an 
intellectual bond, but also an intellectual basis. To be 
sure, no great amount of knowledge is needed if life is as 
simple as among the Eskimos, but an immense amount 
is needed in a social order like our own. That the Ameri- 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY 9 

can people may be supplied with food and shelter, a world 
of knowledge is put to use in carrying on farming, garden- 
ing, stock-raising, lumbering, mining, manufacturing, and 
in the transportation and distribution of the finished 
product. A further world of knowledge is implied in 
the existence and continuance of such institutions as the 
family, social intercourse, the school, the state, and the 
church. On the other hand, consider the knowledge one 
must possess to wind his way safely in and out of a crowded 
city, think of what one must have of customs and man- 
ners — to say nothing of ideals — to be able to Hve har- 
moniously with his fellows, of what one must know of 
the traditions and of the laws of the community, state, 
and nation to be a law-abiding and upright citizen. It 
is not necessary, of course, that any one individual possess 
all the learning implied in carrying on our social machinery 
and in pursuing all the lines of activity to be found in our 
social order, but it is necessary that each know some 
things and that this collective knowledge be had. 

The principles and ideals supplying the bond of social 
life and the knowledge serving as its basis are not gifts of 
heredity to the members of society; these ideals and this 
knowledge are gained by them through the exercise of the 
higher powers of the intellect. It is in thus enabling 
individuals to acquire the needed insights and information 
that the human intellect makes possible the existence of 
society. 

Third, the intellect supplies the motive for social life. 
The individual is able, as we have seen, to form ideals 
and to plan ways of reaching these. Were his intelligence 
limited so that he could only grasp ends which he himself 
might reach, there would then be no incentives for social life 



lo PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

other than those coming from instinct. But man is able 
to comprehend and appreciate ends which of himself he 
is unable to achieve, and to attain these he is compelled 
to seek the aid of others. It is ideas of this type that give 
rise to motives that move the individual to cooperate 
and to join in social undertakings. The average man, 
for example, is slow to take part in social enterprises until 
he can see that they will in some way be to his advantage. 
The motives leading the Colonists to revolt from England 
and to establish a new social order sprang from the con- 
viction that they could thereby better their own condition 
and that of posterity. Thus the intellect, by enabling 
the individual to conceive of ends which he cannot by 
himself attain, becomes the primary source of motives 
leading men to forms of social life. 

4. The Individual and the Existence of Society. — From 
this point of view the relation of the individual to the 
existence of society becomes clear. Society as a psychical 
organization implies the presence of certain emotional 
and intellectual conditions. These are furnished by the 
higher powers of the human intellect. The higher powers 
of the intellect are possessed only by human individuals. 
Consequently, apart from human individuals the breadth 
of sympathy, of sociality, and of the sense of justice, the 
insight into principles and ideals, the knowledge of means, 
and the motives for cooperation — all requisite to social 
life — are not present and society cannot exist. 

To be sure, the existence of no society, say our own, is 
dependent upon the emotions and the intelligence of any 
one individual, but that a given society may be and con- 
tinue, certain emotions and a certain degree of intelli- 
gence are necessary on tRe part of a majority, if not of all. 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY ii 

of its members. Let a majority of the members of a social 
order sink in their emotional life and in intelligence below 
what is necessary to appreciate and understand the under- 
lying principles and ideals, the institutions, and the cus- 
toms of that order, and the given society will sooner or 
later cease to be. Hence it is the individual, by reason of 
his emotions and intelligence, that conditions the existence 
and the continuation of society. 

§ 5. The Individual and the Development of 

Society 

1. Meaning of Social Development. — We mean by 
social development any addition to the materials or means 
of social life or any improvement in the machinery of the 
social order that gives man greater dominion over nature, 
greater dominion over himself, and secures to him a freer, 
fuller, and richer life. 

2. Factors in Social Development. — Apart from the 
individual, there are involved in social development two 
kinds of factors, namely, natural elements — such as mineral 
resources, flora, fauna, etc. — and artificial factors. In our 
present study we shall pass over the natural factors and 
confine our attention to the artificial. This is not because 
the former are unimportant, but because the latter in 
connection with the individual are the determining element 
and the key to an appreciation of social progress. 

The artificial factors of social development are natural 
science, social science, literature, art, and religion. That 
these are factors in social progress is evidenced by the 
fact that where they are found in their fullness and rich- 
ness, there is civilization with its blessings, but where they 



12 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

are found only in their beginnings, there stalks savagery. 
The reason is obvious; natural science Hes at the basis 
of improvement in the production and transportation of 
material and mechanical things, as well as at the basis 
of sanitation and protection from disease. The social 
sciences are the foundation of changes for the better in 
the social order; literature is an element in communica- 
tion, in preserving and imparting knowledge, and in the 
elevation of thought, while art and religion are factors in 
giving pleasure and in inspiring to nobler living. 

The terms employed to designate these artificial factors 
are not used to characterize them as known by professors 
or experts, or as found in books. For there is also to be 
included under these terms those fragments of knowledge 
found crystallized in custom, embodied in tradition, and 
in the practice of the more common occupations, such as 
farming, stock-raising, housekeeping, dressmaking, etc. 
For example, to know how to make bread is natural science, 
but this knowledge, like a world of other information, 
comes to most housekeepers through tradition. 

Furthermore, these factors are not to be viewed as 
things that are fixed, but as things that are ever changing 
and undergoing improvement. For a progressive society 
impHes the presence of natural sciences that are ever wid- 
ening their boundaries and deepening their insights, the 
presence of social sciences that are ever bringing forth 
conceptions and institutions permitting freer and better 
modes of social participation and activity, the presence 
of a literature which serves as the medium for expressing 
and recording the achievements of the mind, that is ever 
becoming richer in its content and more inspiring in its 
teachings, the presence of an art that grows more at- 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY 13 

tractive in its form and more human in its theme, and the 
presence of a rehgion that is ever growing truer in its 
conceptions, more refined in its motive, and more rational 
in its appeal. Let improvement in one or more of these 
factors stop, and the whole or a part of social development 
is arrested. 

3. Source of Artificial Factors. — The mere enumeration 
of the artificial factors of social progress throws little light 
upon the relation of the individual to social development. 
Light will, however, be shed upon his relation to the 
development of society, if the source of these factors is 
considered. 

An organism such as a butterfly or a house fly is moved 
to action by instincts. The human individual is likewise 
moved to action by inherited tendencies or impulses. 

Though the individual is dynamic by virtue of possess- 
ing these impulses, their general effect, when taken alone, 
notwithstanding they impel to action, is to render the 
individual non-progressive. The non-progressive influ- 
ence of inborn tendencies is to be seen in the animal world 
at large, in particular in the way bees make the cells of the 
honey-comb, birds build their nests, and ants form their 
hills. The influence of inborn tendencies is non-pro- 
gressive because, though they give rise to needs, they do 
not supply the means of gratifying these needs, and though 
they constrain to action, they do not carry in themselves 
a knowledge of the ends to be reached through action. 

The capacity to devise means, to conceive of ends as 
well as to choose between them, resides in the higher powers 
of the human intellect. It is this power of invention and 
choice in conjunction with inborn tendencies or impulses 
that renders the individual progressive and creative. 



14 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

To illustrate, hunger impels the individual to seek food. 
By accident, berries, say, are found. The intellect seizes 
upon the fact, and on the return of hunger the memory 
of these comes to mind. If berries fail, other foods are 
sought, and nuts, roots, etc., are discovered and eaten. 
Under the impelling force of appetite and under the guid- 
ance of the higher powers of the intellect, the number of 
known edibles is gradually increased; by degrees, only 
the better ones are selected and eaten, methods of pre- 
serving and preparing these invented, means of artificially 
producing them devised, and ways of procuring additional 
and foreign ones estabhshed. Man has thus gradually ad- 
vanced from the point where he was at the mercy of finding 
food wherever it had chanced to grow, to the stage where 
he consciously cultivates, preserves, prepares, and suppKes 
himself with all that is essential to his nourishment. 

The source of the artificial factors of social progress is 
to be found, therefore, in the progressive creativeness of 
the individual. Take, as an example, the rise and develop- 
ment of natural science. Life is preserved, and preserved 
well, only as advantage is taken of nature. The bringing 
of nature into the service of life presupposes knowledge 
of natural things. Such knowledge — though it be of the 
simplest and most empirical kind — is natural science, 
and, if arranged according to meaning, it is natural science 
in the accepted sense. Natural science may therefore be 
viewed as the product of impulse and of the higher powers 
of the human intellect. In like manner each of the arti- 
ficial factors may be regarded as the product of one or more 
impulses and of human intelligence. As these factors exist 
in their present state, they are not, of course, the instan- 
taneous outcome of the expression of impulse and the 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY 15 

creativeness of the intellect, but the resultant of ages of 
effort in the endeavor to satisfy human needs. 

4. The Agent of Social Development. — If England of 
today is contrasted with England of the time of the Nor- 
man Conquest, great changes and improvements will be 
observed. Scarcely less striking is the contrast between 
life in the United States in 1789 and Hfe in the United 
States today. In view of our purpose, the important 
question is, how were these improvements brought 
about? 

It may be inferred, from the relation the individual 
bears to the artificial factors of social development, that 
every new increment added and every new application 
made of these factors is his work. Since the individual 
alone is able to add new increments to the artificial factors 
and to apply these to social development, he is the sole 
agent in the initiation of social progress. 

The manner in which a given improvement is actually 
brought about, or the way social progress is consummated, 
is, however, not so simple. All the proposed contributions 
to natural science, social science, or religion are not ac- 
cepted; all the reforms in family life, in social intercourse, 
and in the body politic that are agitated do not become 
crystallized in custom or embodied in law. Over and 
above the individual who creates or initiates, there stands 
a selective agent — a court that decides upon which 
offerings shall be accepted. This court is society — the 
many individuals who appreciate and the few who control. 
Approval may be a growth, as in the adoption of a custom, 
or it may be by an act of legislation, as in the abolition of 
slavery. Since only those results of individual produc- 
tiveness and initiation which are socially approved cul- 



i6 PRINCIPLES OF^ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

minate in social advancement, society would seem to be 
the agent through which social progress is consummated. 

A study of the nature of social approval leads, however, 
to another conclusion. Take as a type of reform con- 
summated through conscious social action, the abolition 
of slavery. The idea of its aboHtion had its birth in the 
mind of an individual, but his advocacy of it alone could 
never have accomplished the desired end. Other indi- 
viduals appreciated the idea, changed it according to their 
bias, and made it their own. Gradually, the necessity 
of aboHshing slavery became the accepted conviction of 
the American people, and finally this was done through 
an act of their representatives. Though this reform was 
not made effective by the individual as such, yet he was 
the instrument of it from its inception to its completion, 
and what is true here is true of all movements for social 
betterment. Nevertheless, there is a difference between 
the individual as the agent who initiates and as the agent 
who consummates. For the initiation of social improve- 
ment rests with him as an individual, whereas its con- 
summation is the work of individuals either in a personal 
or representative capacity. 

5. The Test of Social Development. — The relation of the 
individual to the development of society is further revealed 
in the test of social progress. The only motive the indi- 
vidual has for bringing forth the artificial factors involved 
and in applying these to the improvement of the social 
order is that he may better his own condition or promote 
the welfare of others. Where the desired good can be 
attained without the intervention of social authority, the 
individual acts upon his own idea or upon the suggestion 
of another, because he thereby gains something which he 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY 17 

feels is of worth to himself or to others. Where the pro- 
posed innovation must be collectively or officially ap- 
proved, the approval is, to a greater or less extent — at 
least in modern democracies — an expression of the will 
of the people, and is given because the reform is viewed 
as conducive directly or indirectly to the best interests 
of the members of the given social whole. To be sure, 
under every existing form of society there live multitudes 
whose condition is not ideal, and who would sanction but 
a portion of the social restraints imposed upon them; it 
is also to be conceded that social action is not always 
determined with reference to the welfare of all, but at 
times with respect to the interest of the few. Neverthe- 
less, where society does advance, this progress is favorable 
to the higher and better life of its members. Indeed, in 
view of the source of its constituent factors, in view of 
the agent initiating it and bringing it about, social develop- 
ment can have no other test than human welfare — the 
higher life of the individual. 

6. The Individual and Social Progress, — Being the 
source of the artificial factors involved therein, and being 
the agent who both initiates and consummates, the indi- 
vidual naturally conditions social development. The 
development of society is, of course, not conditioned by 
any single individual. It is, however, dependent upon the 
few who are able to add to the artificial factors and to 
initiate social improvement, and upon the many who are 
able to appreciate the value of proposed contributions 
and to assist in consimimating social reforms. Deprive 
a social order of individuals able to prosecute investiga- 
tions and to inaugurate social changes for the better, de- 
prive it of individuals able to understand the value of these, 



1 8 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

— as was practically the case in ancient Egypt and China, 

— and the given society ceases to develop and becomes 
static. 

§ 6. The Individual and the Aim of Society 

I. The Aim of Society. — In view of the test of social 
progress set forth above, it may be inferred that the aim 
of society is to minister to the needs of the individual. 
The individual is, as we have seen, dynamic, creative, and 
progressive. By virtue of these qualities, he not only 
seeks to satisfy his wants, but strives to gratify them 
progressively better. However, when left to himself, he 
will not always do this in ways conducive to the welfare 
of others. In consequence, society seeks, on the one 
hand, to aid in satisfying in the highest manner all 
human needs, and, on the other hand, to constrain the 
individual to gratify his wants in conformity with the 
interests of others. For this reason the aim of society 
may be said to be the realization of the highest life of its 
members. 

Two illustrations will make this clear. When individuals 
come to appreciate higher forms of life than those they 
enjoy, they begin to strive for them. If these higher 
privileges cannot be secured by individual effort and 
under the given social Hmitations, they seek to mould 
public opinion so as to impel the recognition of the right 
to labor for them, and to bring about such social action 
as will aid in their acquisition. If the effort is successful, 
the object of both the law crystallizing the given phase 
of public opinion and of the given social action is to make 
possible to the individual a particular opportunity or 
line of development. Such are the social guarantees of 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY 19 

life, of liberty, of equality, the right to property, to edu- 
cation, to freedom of conscience, to freedom of speech, 
and to the pursuit of happiness, assured by modern socie- 
ties to their citizens. On the other hand, when society 
comes to value certain qualities of character or a certain 
type of manhood, such social forms are instituted and such 
opportunities afforded as will call out or impel the desired 
development in its members. The particular quality of 
character may not be what the individual acting freely 
would seek to acquire, but as a rule it is one favorable 
to self-development under the given conditions of Hfe. 
Present-day insistence upon intelligence, veracity, honesty, 
obedience, industry, temperance, chastity, etc., is typical 
of such social action. Society exists, therefore, — at least 
in ideal, — to meet the needs of its members and to foster 
individual development. 

2. The Aim of Society and Social Ideals. — Whatever 
the aim of society may be in the abstract, in the concrete 
it is conditioned by social ideals, that is, by the ideals 
cherished by a people or nation as a whole. The social 
ideals of peoples not only differ, but those of the same 
nation vary from age to age. What a contrast between 
the standards of the Germans of the time of Tacitus and 
the standards of the Germans of today, between the 
standards of France of the Ancient Regime and those of 
the Third Republic, between the ideals of Puritan New 
England and those of our expanding democracy! It is, 
therefore, nearer the truth to say that the working aim of 
a given society is conditioned by the conception of Hfe, of 
equality, of Kberty, of property, of freedom of speech 
and of conscience, of education and intelligence, of veracity, 
honesty, obedience, industry, temperance, and chastity 



20 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION^ 

prevailing at the given time, and that these prevailing 
conceptions condition the particular ends of attainment 
held before the members of the given society, the specific 
assistance and encouragement given, the particular limita- 
tions and restrictions imposed. 

3. The Source of Social Ideals. — Society in every detail 
is created by its members, yet relatively few of these 
participate in its creation. The ability to make a contri- 
bution to the fund of social knowledge, of initiating a new 
custom or convention, of introducing a ferment in social 
life which will raise society to a higher level, — such 
ability is possessed only by individuals who have excep- 
tional capacity for Hving near the life of the people, of 
absorbing their wisdom and spirit, of ministering to their 
needs, and of formulating their aspirations. Such individ- 
uals are the best endowed, the most gifted of the race. 
They are our Agassizes and Morses, our Whittiers and 
Emersons, our Barnards and Manns, our Edwardses and 
Beechers, our Washingtons and Lincolns. Any given 
society is, therefore, the product of the creative genius 
of the relatively few. These are, however, typical indi- 
viduals, and for this reason society, though the work of 
the few, represents the thoughts, ideals, and aspirations 
of all. 

Social ideals, like other parts of society, have their in- 
ception in the individual — not, of course, in the ordinary 
individual, but in the superior, the well-endowed. Every 
ideal in its original form is an individual's idea of how he 
or his fellows may best meet some need, or of how under 
the given social conditions he may promote his or their 
development. His idea may, to be sure, be modified by 
others as individuals, before it is received by them and 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY 21 

advocated as a principle of social action, and it may be 
still further modified by others in office, before it is ac- 
cepted and imposed upon the members of the given society 
through legal enactment. However much or little may 
be taken from or added to the original conception, the 
foregoing is the history of every ideal cherished by modern 
democracies. Hence the individual is not only the source 
of social ideals, but of every change made in them from 
their inception to their acceptance, and even their accept- 
ance is his work. 

4. Ideals of the Individual and the Aim of Society. — 
Since the aim of society is embodied in social ideals, and 
these are but the highest conceptions of gifted individuals 
of how to order collective life so that it may be most con- 
ducive to the well-being of the individual, the aim of a 
given society is nothing more or less than the fused total 
of the highest ideals brought forth by its most eminent 
members both past and present. The aim of our own 
social order is, for example, but the fused total of the ideals 
brought forth and cherished by those sturdy men and 
women who have made our country's history in industry, 
in social institutions, in science and education, in litera- 
ture, philosophy, art, and religion. Being the source of 
social ideals, it is therefore the individual — the rela- 
tively few well endowed — that determines the aim of 
society. 

5. The Individual and the Perfection of Society. — Being 
thus conditioned, it is only the individual that is able so 
to modify the ends of society as to make possible higher 
and higher modes of personal living. A social order which 
affords increasingly better opportunities for personal 
living is being perfected, being brought nearer and nearer 



22 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

the ideal society. The individual is, therefore, also the 
agent of social perfection. 

■* 

§ 7. Conclusions 

In view of the outcome of our discussion, the relation 
of the individual to society appears to be fundamental. 
First, it is his superior intelligence that supplies the emo- 
tional and intellectual basis and bond necessary to the exist- 
ence and continuance of society. Second, he is the source 
of the artificial factors impKed in social development, and 
not only initiates social progress but consummates it, and 
his freer, richer life is its test. Third, being the source of 
social ideals, he determines the aim of society and becomes 
the agent of its perfection. In short, society is dependent 
upon the individual for its existence and continuance, its 
development, and its perfection. 

Readings 

Ross, Social Control, pp. 1-48. 

Fairbanks, Introduction to Sociology, pp. 87-115. 

Blackmar, Elements of Sociology, pp. 252-259, 269-274, 317-325- 

Betts, Social Principles of Education, pp. 22-31. 

Baldwin, The Individual and Society, pp. 13-76. 

Cooley, Hitman Nature and the Social Order, pp. 283-325. 

Small and Vincent, An Introduction to the Study of Society, pp. 100-166. 

Dealey and Ward, Text-Book of Sociology, pp. 169-175, 200-207, 267-287. 

Ely, Evolution of Industrial Society, pp. 398-425. 

Willoughby, The Nature of the State, pp. 309-350- 



CHAPTER II 

THE RELATION OF SOCIETY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ' 

We now turn to the second question suggested above, 
that of the relation of society to the individual. 

§ I. The Individual and His Characteristics 

The human individual is able to conceive of himself 
as a self. He thinks of himself as the subject of his feel- 
ings and the controller of his thoughts and actions. He 
thinks of himself as having a past, a present, and a future; 
as having certain worth and being of certain importance; 
as having certain rights and privileges; and as having 
certain duties to perform with reference to himself and to 
others. When thus regarded, there are three character- 
istics of the individual that claim attention. 

First, according to the law of heredity, each organism, 
within limits, reproduces its kind, and man is no exception. 
Each human individual thus inherits the qualities of his 
kind, and his attributes are consequently not acquired, 
but inherited. Even more distinctive is the fact that the 
condition or the environment, making it possible for the 
individual to enjoy his inborn qualities, is not at least 
directly inherited. Nevertheless, the presence of such 
an environment is essential, if the human individual is to 
live the hfe made accessible to him by heredity. For just 
as the life of the frog presupposes the frog pond, so to be 



24 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

a human individual in the fullest sense of the term implies 
surroundings which provide opportunity to live according 
to the requirements and possibilities of his inherited 
nature. 

Second, the new-born child does not think; there is no 
recognition of an ^'I"; no distinguishing of self from 
other selves; no projection of ends and adjustment of means 
to their attainment. The child at birth possesses, to be 
sure, by virtue of heredity, capacities for gaining such 
insights, but in reality it is a reflex-instinctive machine 
set to the performance of certain preservative activities. 
Indeed, it is well along toward the fourteenth year before 
all the inborn tendencies of life make their appearance, 
before the child attains any considerable maturity of 
thought, and before it comes to think of itself to any 
considerable extent as a self. The infant is consequently 
not an individual in the full sense of the word, but merely 
one in embryo, and becomes such only through a process 
of development. 

Third, the human individual is a creature of wants, and 
these are ever constraining him to action. Gifted with 
the higher forms of creative thought, he is not only able to 
conceive of ways of satisfying these, but also able to con- 
ceive of ways which to him are better than those he enjoys. 
However contrary to casual observation it may seem, he 
ever seeks to satisfy his wants in the manner which seems 
to him to be the best. In short, the individual seeks to 
live the fullest and richest life, to attain the highest self- 
realization possible to him under the given conditions. 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 25 

§ 2. The Problem Restated 

If it is accepted that the distinctive characteristics of 
the individual are, that his nature is conditioned by hered- 
ity and his life as an individual by an environment provid- 
ing opportunity to live according to his inheritance, that 
he is subject to development, and that he seeks the highest 
self-reaHzation attainable to him, then the relation of 
society to the individual may be resolved into three prob- 
lems: (i) What is the relation of society to his existence, 
that is, to his life as an individual such as we know and 
feel that we are? (2) What is its relation to his develop- 
ment? (3) What is its relation to the aim of life held and 
attained by him? Each of these questions will be con- 
sidered in turn. 

§ 3. Society and the Existence of the Individual 

I. Society and the Inherited Attributes of the Individual. — 
Though it is difficult to see in the modern citizen more 
than the dimmest vestige of his far distant ancestor, — 
contrast for example the present-day German with the 
German of the time of Tacitus, the modern Italian with 
the ancient Lombard, — nevertheless it was out of such 
material that man as now known was evolved. In his 
development from dependency upon nature to that of 
sustenance through organized industry, from the exercise 
of mere animal-like functions to participation in the 
manifold aspects of civilized life, advance has been from 
less to more complicated social relations. Qualities suffi- 
ciently important to enable those who possessed them to 
get along well under primitive conditions not only became 



26 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

useless, but often proved a hindrance in higher forms of 
social life: for example, the instinct to fight. As a result, 
there has been and there is now a constant elimination of 
traits useful under primitive conditions and a selection of 
traits useful in complex social relations. Through this 
selective process, determined by the ever varying demands 
of social life, the inherited nature of man has been gradually 
transformed and given its present character. 

As an illustration of the transformation of human 
nature under the action of social selection, take the acquired 
power of sustained attention. Striking, indeed, in this 
respect is the difference between the savage and the indi- 
vidual adapted to a high state of civilization. Under 
strong excitation, such as inaminent danger, the attentive 
power of the two, to be sure, differs little; the difference 
becomes apparent only when external stimuli are with- 
drawn. Much of this difference is doubtless due to con- 
scious purpose and to education, yet a considerable portion 
of it has its basis in inherited predisposition. For in the 
development of man, there was open to him but one alter- 
native, that of perishing or of adjusting himself to more and 
more complex modes of social life. This increasing com- 
plexity of social life imposed greater and greater demands 
upon attention. Those who could not meet this demand 
perished; those who could meet it survived and transmitted 
their hereditary power. In this way not only was the 
mental capacity of the individual gradually increased, but 
it also became predisposed to express itself in the form of 
sustained attention. "Attention is therefore an instru- 
ment that has been perfected — a product of civiliza- 
tion." 

The power of reasoning or of thought possessed by 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 



27 



civilized man is likewise illustrative. Travellers are 
struck with the lack of such capacity among primitive 
peoples. "The Damaras," writes Mr. Galton, "count 
with difficulty beyond five, and if two sticks of tobacco 
were the rate of exchange for one sheep, it would sorely 
puzzle a Damara to take two sheep and give him four 
sticks. To be intelligible, each sheep must be paid for 
separately." Here, again, much of this difference is 
doubtless due to difference in the direction of interest and 
to a difference in environment and materials of thought. 
Still some of it is, without question, due to a difference in 
capacity. For there is Httle in the Hfe of primitive peoples 
to impel reasoning, while the transition from primitive 
conditions to modem civilized life has been accompanied 
by greater and greater demands upon capacity for abstract 
thought. Those not possessing the requisite capacity suc- 
cumbed and perished, whereas those having such capacity 
survived and flourished. Thus, under the selective action 
of society, men were born with gradually increasing powers 
of thought and came to be endowed with such capacity 
for reasoning as is found among civilized peoples. 

Although there are cases of primitive peoples who seem 
always to have lived at peace among themselves and their 
neighbors, like the Eskimos, it is generally recognized that 
most primitive folk are warlike, and that those races have 
survived which proved themselves the best fighters. For 
there was a time when the fighting instinct was of supreme 
importance. With the change of social life from a military 
to an intellectual and ethical basis, the fighting instinct 
did not retain its primary significance; sympathy, sociality, 
and intelligence became of greater worth. In this new 
order and under these changed conditions, the citizen 



.28 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

pugnacious by nature came to be at a disadvantage, and 
was gradually displaced by the more sympathetic, social, 
and intelligent. As a result, the more pugnacious were 
gradually eliminated and there was bred in man a deeper 
natural sympathy and a stronger natural tendency to 
cooperation, such as is found in the modern man. 

As a final illustration, take a trait almost unknown to 
savages — the predisposition to work. It comes natural 
to the members of modern society to labor. This may 
be due somewhat to interest, to example, to education, 
and to the development of other qualities, still it depends 
in large measure upon inherited disposition, and the indi- 
vidual born under centuries of civilization works as nat- 
urally as the pointer points or the race-horse runs. Savages 
as a rule are lazy, and the dictum, ^'Indian, no work," 
applies to all barbaric peoples. Even half-civilized tribes 
find labor repugnant, and it is only among highly developed 
nations that there is found the hereditary tendency and 
power of continuous application. Even among the fore- 
most of modern people, there is a class of individuals — • 
vagabonds, thieves, etc. — who seem incapable of pro- 
tracted effort; these are, however, viewed as abnormals 
and dealt with as such. Industry being a condition of 
higher life, in the transition from barbarism to civilization 
the lazy and good-for-nothing perished, and the industrious 
survived and transmitted their capacity and predisposi- 
tion to labor. Thus the modern citizen, under the social 
determination of heredity, was bred to work and gradually 
acquired those characteristics described by Mr. Chadwick 
as, ''Great bodily strength, applied under the command 
of a steady, persevering will, mental self-con ten tedness, 
impassibility to external irrelevant impressions, which 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 29 

carries them through the continuous repetition of toil- 
some labor, 'steady as time.' " ^ 

Illustrations of how the inherited attributes of the indi- 
vidual have been transformed through the action of society 
and made what they now are might be multiphed until 
the whole range of the child's inherited traits was covered. 
A sufficient number, however, have been given and the 
principle upon which the determination of the quaHties 
transmitted discussed at such length as to warrant the 
inference that the individual owes his being as he now 
is to society, and that society through determining the 
character of the attributes inherited has within limits 
made the individual what he now is as an organism. With- 
out society in the past, the individual endowed as he now 
is would therefore not exist. There would, of course, be 
individuals, even if there had never been forms of social 
Hfe, but they would be radically different in inherited 
tendencies and capacities from the ones we know. 

2. Society and the Living of Human Life. — In the 
second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence are 
found these words: "We hold these truths to be self-evi- 
dent, that all men are created equal, that they are en- 
dowed by their Creator with certain unahenable rights, 
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
piness." If to the above we add the right to property, 
we have a relatively complete list of the so-called unalien- 
able rights of man. 

What is meant by an unahenable right? To be sure, 

it means a right which cannot, except for cause, be taken 

away or denied the individual. Its meaning, however, 

lies deeper. It means a privilege which an individual 

1 Quoted from Galton, Hereditfiry Geniusj pp. 347-348. 



30 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

must enjoy, if he is to live according to his inherited nature, 
if he is to live as a human being. In short, we mean by 
unalienable rights those privileges or the environment 
which must be enjoyed if human Kfe as we know it is to be 
lived. For, deny the individual the right to the pursuit 
of happiness, to hberty, and to property and he is reduced 
to slavery; deny him the right to life and he is lowered to 
the level of the animal. There can be no question that it 
is the enjoyment of these privileges along with others that 
makes possible such human life and living as we know. 
Whence are these natural or unalienable rights? 

The Declaration of Independence declares they are the 
gift to the individual from the Creator. That there are 
certain laws controlling the development and life of the 
individual writ large in his inherited nature is true; this 
is really the thought of our forefathers. That man, to live 
the fullest and richest life, must conform to these laws is 
also true, but that the Creator guarantees the individual 
in the rights impKed in living in accord with his nature 
and supplies him with the conditions most favorable to this 
is not true; these privileges or this environment must be 
guaranteed and supplied by other agencies. 

To think that the so-called unalienable rights of man 
are the gift of the Creator rests upon a misconception of 
what constitutes a right in any human sense. Professor 
Holland^ defines a right as "one man's capacity of in- 
fluencing the acts of another by means not of his own 
strength, but of the opinion or force of society.'' "There 
can be no rights," says Green,^ "without a consciousness 
of common interests on the part of members of society. 

^ Quoted from Green, Prolegomena to Ethics. 
2 Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, pp. 191-202. 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 31 

Without this, there might be certain powers on the part 
of the individuals, but no recognition of these powers by 
others as powers of which they should allow the exercise, 
nor any claim to such recognition, and without this recog- 
nition or claim to recognition there can be no right." 
A right, then, is nothing more or less than a privilege 
guaranteed or an opportunity supplied the individual by 
the social whole of which he is a part, and it is not some- 
thing born with or inherent in him. The framers of the 
Declaration of Independence recognized this, for after 
enumerating the more important of the so-called unalien- 
able rights the Declaration runs, "To secure these rights, 
governments are instituted among men." 

There are, therefore, no rights belonging to the indi- 
vidual — in the sense that he is secure in them — other 
than those guaranteed by the society of which he is a 
member. That the American citizen enjoys the right to 
life, to property, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness 
is not because these are natural rights, but because they are 
secured him by our Constitution; the same individual as 
a member of a different government, as Russia, would 
have different privileges, while alone on an island in- 
habited by tigers only, he would enjoy none. 

Apart from social relations, the individual possesses 
consequently only those privileges and opportunities and 
only that environment which he can of himself secure for 
himself. He who boasts that his life is sacred, that he 
possesses property, that he is free, that he can live accord- 
ing to the requirements of his nature states, therefore, 
but half a truth, and should complete his declaration by 
adding, *' because these privileges are guaranteed by the 
society of which I am a member." 



32 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

Since the individual must enjoy certain rights in order 
to live as a human being, and since it is the social order of 
which he is a part that secures to him whatever rights he 
possesses, it is therefore society that makes possible human 
life as we know it. For, take away these social guarantees, 
this environment, and the individual is reduced to the 
level of the savage, and human Hfe as now lived ceases 
to be. 

3. Conclusion. — That the individual inherits the im- 
pulsive tendencies and mental capacities he now does is 
due, as we have seen, to the selective action of society 
upon his ancestors, and that he is able to live the life he 
now lives is made possible by his pohtical, industrial, 
educational, and rehgious privileges and opportunities — 
in a word, is made possible by the environment guaran- 
teed by the social order of which he is a member. The 
existence of the individual as he now is in body, mind, and 
spirit is therefore conditioned by society of the past, while 
the existence of human life as now lived is conditioned by 
that of the present. In short, society — taking that of 
the past and present together — conditions the existence 
of such individuals as we are in psychical endowment and 
manner of living. 

§ 4. Society and the Development of the Individual 

I. Capacities for Psychical Development. — The child's 
capacities for development are the impulsive tendencies 
and mental traits inherited from his parents. 

Much has been made of late of the uncoordinated 
character of the nervous system of the new-born, and of 
its plasticity during the period of infancy. It is the lack 
of nervous complexity and of plasticity among animals 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 33 

that bars to them after birth all but the slightest develop- 
ment and training. Animals, as it were, are born educated. 
The child, in contrast, by virtue of an abundance of un- 
coordinated nerve cells and by virtue of the ease with which 
these may be moulded in desired ways, is susceptible after 
birth of large development and of a long period of educa- 
tion. The uncoordinated character of the nervous system 
of the child and its plasticity should, however, not be 
regarded as traits that develop, but as accompanying 
conditions of the child's several tendencies and capacities. 

2 . Development of the Individual Dependent upon Materials 
of Culture. — Whatever capacity for development the child 
may possess, the degree of attainment he achieves is not 
conditioned wholly by the impulsive and mental traits he 
inherits; this depends also upon the materials of culture 
or upon the psychical environment that he can appropri- 
ate and utihze in furthering his development. An illus- 
tration will make clear the correctness of this position. 

It is generally recognized that primitive peoples, like the 
Indians and Eskimos, possess capacity for development 
which if actuahzed would raise them to a stage of civiliza- 
tion higher than the one they enjoy. Yet these primitive 
peoples with their native ability remain, when left to 
themselves, in a state of barbarism. What is true of a 
people is in this case true also of the individual. In the 
''Dark Continent," there are doubtless negroes with as 
much natural capacity as possessed by the twelve hundred 
and more negro graduates of American colleges, but per- 
haps nowhere among the millions of native Africans is there 
an individual whose attainments could compare with those 
of the weakest of these colored graduates. The Franks, 
Teutons, and Britons of the time of Caesar possessed, as 



34 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

is generally believed, only slightly less ability than their 
modern descendants, yet individual development among 
them was far below that of the present-day German, 
Frenchman, or EngHshman. In a word mere capacity 
for development does not insure it; other factors are 
essential. 

Again, the appearance of such individuals in Italy in the 
fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, as Petrarch, 
Boccaccio, and others was not due to a sudden increase 
of capacity in the Italians, nor wholly to the exceptional 
abilities of these men, but rather to the new conception 
of Hfe and the new materials, acquired during the Renais- 
sance, upon which they could react. The difference be- 
tween a Sandwich Islander or a New Zealander of today 
and of a hundred years ago is not due to difference in abiHty, 
but to a change in the conditions of psychical development 
brought about by the introduction into these lands of 
Western civiHzation. Likewise, the difference between 
the early Franks, Teutons, and Britons, and the French, 
Germans, and EngHsh of today is explainable only upon 
the ground of change in the materials of culture. 

Though the development attained by the individual 
is conditioned by the materials of culture which he can 
make his own, yet neither capacity for development nor 
the materials thereof should be exalted one over the other, 
nor should they be thought of apart, for both are essential 
to a well-rounded Hfe. It is, however, probably true that 
favorable materials of culture are a larger factor in the 
development of the individual than exceptional capacity. 

3. Materials of Culture. — The materials of culture, 
upon which the development of the individual depends, 
comprise — at least in the case of highly civilized people 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 35 

— natural science, social science, literature, art, religion, 
and general spirit. 

Natural science, as an element, includes besides our 
systematized knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemis- 
try, botany, zoology, etc., and our insight into the way 
in which these are applied to the practical affairs of Hfe, 
that knowledge handed down by tradition from genera- 
tion to generation and employed in industries like stock- 
raising, farming, housekeeping, and blacksmithing. 

Under social science are to be brought occupations, the 
family, community, state, school, and church. Here, too, 
belong those customs and traditions which envelop every 
line of social intercourse, as well as all social ideals, theories, 
and knowledge of means which determine and influence 
the social order. 

With literature are to be classed language and writing 
characterized by permanence of truth and beauty of style, 
such as poetry, fiction, history, and philosophy, also what 
may be designated unwritten literature, that is, those stories, 
fancies, and traditions which permeate and color the life 
of a people. 

To the art element belong architecture, sculpture, music, 
and painting in their respective development, as well 
as the particular forms in which these manifest themselves 
in the taste of the people, for example, in amusement, in 
dress, in public parks and buildings, and in the home. 

Under religion are to be brought sacred Hterature, creeds, 
ceremonies, modes of worship, ideals of Hfe, and all pertain- 
ing to direct moral and reHgious teachings. 

Though the element designated ''general spirit" is 
invisible and intangible, a short absence from one's own 
folk brings it within the range of feeling. So powerful is 



36 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

it that it gives color to all the other elements, and under 
its potency one finds himself falling into the ways of thought, 
feeling, and action of the people with whom he lives. ''The 
spirit of a people," writes Falkenberg,^ "is not a phrase, an 
empty name, but a real force, not a sum of the individuals 
belonging to a people, but an encompassing and controlHng 
power which brings forth in the whole body, processes 
(e.g., language) which could not occur in individuals as 
such." 

A comparison of the elements of the materials of culture 
with the artificial factors of social development reveals 
the fact that the two are the same. The inference to be 
drawn is that the artificial factors making social progress 
possible are at the same time those that condition the 
development of the individual. 

4. Materials of Culture as Materials of Development. — 
The reason why these materials of culture are the materials 
of psychical development is not far to seek. Each incre- 
ment of the materials of culture was brought forth by the 
individual, as we have seen, because it was the insight or 
knowledge of means needed to enable him to give such 
expression and direction to an impulse, or so to control 
his actions as to satisfy a practical need or to attain a 
development higher than that which he enjoyed, and it 
serves the same function in the life of whoever makes it 
his own and applies it. To illustrate, the individual is 
born into the world with capacity for science, and in the 
scientific element of the materials of culture he finds ready 
to hand materials upon which to exercise his abiHty and 
through the aid of which he may foster his development 
along scientific lines. He possesses social tendencies, and 
1 Falkenberg, History oj Modern Philosophy, p. 623. 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 37 

the element of the materials of culture having to do with 
institutions and social life supplies the medium of giving 
both expression and direction to these. The artistic ele- 
ment furnishes him with the means of artistic enjoyment 
and of cultivating his taste, while the religious element 
affords him materials adapted to foster his aptitude for 
morahty and reHgion. The materials of culture are there- 
fore the materials of development, because they supply 
the means necessary to the exercise and expression of 
psychical tendencies and capacities. It follows that 
the degree and type of attainment accessible to the indi- 
vidual are conditioned not only by the materials of culture, 
but by the character of those that he is able to appropriate. 

5. Society and the Materials of Culture. — An individual 
alone upon an island and independent of others might 
gain a certain amount of knowledge which would be helpful 
in adjusting himself to his natural surroundings, and which 
would serve also as the medium of a certain amount of 
psychical development. Still, the amount of fruitful 
experience an isolated individual could acquire by himself 
within a Hfetime would be small and would avail little as 
a means of livelihood and of culture. Furthermore, the 
experience of this supposed isolated individual would 
perish with him, and on-coming generations would not 
profit by his labors. If men lived in relative isolation, 
each new individual would consequently begin his inde- 
pendent existence at relatively the same point, each would 
discover practically the same facts, and these would in 
turn perish with him. That varied and rich materials 
of culture could not exist with men living in isolation is 
therefore obvious. 

In our study of the relation of the individual to society, 



38 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

we made him the ultimate creative agent. If what seemed 
to be the work of the individual is examined more carefully, 
it will prove to be the product of social rather than of indi- 
vidual endeavor. That is, it will be found that a given 
production is made possible to the individual through the 
aid of others. To illustrate, Marconi is said to have in- 
vented wireless telegraphy, but back of this invention lie 
centuries of history in which is recorded the labor of hun- 
dreds. Each of these workers contributed his part in 
enabling Marconi to make his invention. Doubtless the 
greatest single addition to science during the last century 
was the Origin of Species by Darwin; though this was 
the work of one master mind, many directly or indirectly 
had a share in it. Spencer's Principles of Sociology 
was by no means a small contribution, yet in the first 
volume he quotes three hundred and thirty-two different 
authors. The same is true of the creations of the hand. 
*'A11 that man produces today more than his cave-dwelling 
ancestors, he produces by virtue of the accumulated 
achievements, inventions, and improvements of the inter- 
vening generations, together with the social and industrial 
machinery which is their legacy. . . . Nine hundred and 
ninety-nine parts out of the thousand of every man's pro- 
duce are the results of his social inheritance and environ- 
ment." Though the individual is the center and source 
of the creative energy of the human world, apart from his 
fellows he is shorn of his power. Only as he is aided by 
them is he able to bring forth those creations of mind, 
heart, and hand which contribute to the development of 
materials of culture. Collective aid of others is, however, 
dependent upon forms of social Hfe. It is, therefore, 
society in the last analysis that makes the individual 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 39 

productive and enables him to create those ideals of life 
and that knowledge of means implied in materials of 
culture other than of the lowest order. 

The individual, through the aid of others, makes his 
contribution and ceases to be, whereas the social order of 
which he is a part may continue century after century. 
Because the social order does live on, it supplies the con- 
ditions for passing on the accumulations and creations of 
one generation to another. By reason of this transmission, 
each new generation, so far as the materials of development 
are concerned, begins practically where the preceding one 
left off, and is free to press on to new inventions and dis- 
coveries. Not only does social life thus place at the dis- 
posal of each new individual the fruitful experiences of the 
past, but, at least among the more highly civilized peoples 
of modern times, it renders available to him also the results 
of the work of his contemporaries. Through the medium of 
social life, the generations that have gone before labor for 
those that come after, and the materials that each new 
individual may make his own and use as a means of self- 
development are equal to the total that past generations 
as well as the present have acquired. Society, by thus 
rendering possible the transmission of the acquisition of 
one generation to another, becomes in consequence the 
condition of the development of varied materials of culture. 

It should be remarked, however, that not all the ac- 
quisitions of the past are handed on to the rising genera- 
tion. Each age passes judgment upon what is of worth, 
and tests its heritage by its own standards. Under this 
process of selection, only the best of the creations of past 
generations are preserved, while the dregs and dross are 
left behind. Such a selective process obviously presup- 



40 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

poses social life. It is therefore society that conditions the 
rise of rich materials of culture. 

6. Relation of Society to Individual Development. — The 
relation of society to the attainments of the individual 
is now readily understood. Since his development, other 
than the merest modicum, is dependent upon materials of 
culture, and since these in their variety and richness are 
made possible by social life, society conditions his develop- 
ment. Further, since the development of the individual 
is dependent upon the particular materials of culture he 
can appropriate and utilize, and the particular materials 
of culture he can enjoy are those made accessible by the 
social order of which he is a part, the society of which the 
individual is a member conditions also the character 
and degree of development attainable by him. The de- 
velopment of EngHshmen is consequently conditioned by 
the materials of culture supplied and made available by 
England, of Americans by those furnished and rendered 
accessible by the United States, and so on to the lowest 
known social order, that of the Fuegians. 

§ 5. Society and the Aim of the Individual 

1. Factors Determining Aim of Individual Life. — Since 
the individual is what he is as an organism by virtue of 
inherited tendencies and capacities, and since the develop- 
ment of these is dependent upon materials of culture, the 
hfe chosen by the individual as his own is conditioned on 
the one hand by heredity and on the other by the materials 
of culture or the psychical environment influencing his 
development. 

2. The Individual as Predisposed by Heredity. — The 
individual, as the resultant of heredity, summarizes in 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 41 

his body and brain those characteristics of the race, of the 
particular branch of the race, and of the particular family 
to which he belongs that have proved their right to trans- 
mission. In consequence, heredity determines the t3^e 
or character of human life. No individual, however much 
he may desire it, can Hve like a fish or Hke a bird, or exist 
without food, clothing, and shelter. His Hfe is confined 
within the range of certain propensities, capacities, and 
needs, and he can only enjoy the kind or type of life to 
which he is disposed. 

Heredity fixes also the limits of our development. How- 
ever desirable it might be to have the strength of an Atlas 
or the wisdom of an Athena, there are Hmits to our develop- 
ment. The athlete, for example, may train with increasing 
strength for months, but ultimately he comes to a point 
beyond which he cannot go, though one better endowed 
excels with ease. Similarly with mental endeavor: the 
student learns that there are things beyond his power 
which he must leave to others with greater inherited ability. 
Even the gifted find that they have their Hmits. 

Though human life is thus conditioned by heredity, 
heredity of itself merely registers or preserves. According 
to its law, each organism reproduces its kind, but of itself 
heredity does not determine what organisms shall reproduce 
and thereby condition what characteristics shall be trans- 
mitted. This rests with forces, apart from heredity, act- 
ing as a selective agent. The selective forces which act 
upon man and condition what individuals shall Hve and 
transmit their characteristics are, as we have seen, the 
needs of social life. 

The survival of an organism depends in general upon 
its abiHty to adjust itself to the given selective environ- 



42 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

ment, and since organisms reproduce their kind, each new 
generation inherits those characteristics which enabled 
the parents to Hve under the given conditions. The rising 
generation is consequently partially adjusted before birth, 
through heredity, to the given selective environment. If 
the selective conditions remain static, the adjustment 
becomes more or less complete, and the new-born is more 
or less perfectly adapted to its future abode, either through 
well-fixed reflexes and strong instincts, or through unorgan- 
ized predisposed capacities which may be modified as the 
conditions of life demand. The tendency of heredity is, 
therefore, to equip the individual with those character- 
istics which enable him to survive. Hence the individual, 
through his hereditary equipment, is predisposed to the 
kind of Kfe determined by the selective environment acting 
upon his ancestors. Fish are predisposed to live in water, 
birds to live in the air. 

When heredity is socially determined, as in the case of 
man, the individual is thereby endowed with those im- 
pulsive tendencies and mental traits requisite to survival 
under social conditions, and predisposed through this 
hereditary equipment to the kind of Hfe determined by 
society. Since one's ancestors may have been acted upon 
century after century by relatively the same selective 
conditions, the individual is equipped by heredity with 
the requisites of survival and is predisposed to hfe as 
determined by the society of his own people. The China- 
man is predisposed, for example, to modes of Chinese Hfe, 
the Eskimo to modes of Eskimo hfe. It is in the hght of 
this conclusion that the essentially social character of 
human nature is to be understood. 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 43 

3. The Individual as Disposed by Psychical Environment. 
— Psychical environment, that is, the available materials of 
culture, becomes a factor in determining the life chosen 
by the individual, in that it supplies him with ideals and 
with knowledge of how to satisfy his needs. 

The real needs of the individual may be classified as 
those arising from the impulse of self-preservation, for 
example, the need of food, clothing, and protection; as 
those springing from the impulse of race-preservation, 
like the longing for the satisfaction of the family and 
parental instinct; as those growing out of the intellectual 
impulse, such as the thirst for knowledge and for intellec- 
tual activity; as those having their source in the social 
impulse, among which is the desire for companionship 
and intercourse with others; as those having their basis 
in the artistic impulse, for example, the yearning for the 
beautiful; and, finally, as those springing from the moral- 
reHgious impulse, such as the craving for a deeper insight 
into the mysteries of self and of God, a hunger for greater 
self-control, better ideals, and purer motives. These are 
the needs common to men and felt by them to a greater 
or less extent. 

A child deprived of opportunity to learn from others 
would gratify its wants much like an animal or like the 
most primitive savage. Such a child, though born of 
cultured American parents, would begin its independent 
struggle for existence and self-realization even below where 
the offspring of the most primitive people starts; it would 
have as its only resource certain impelHng impulses, certain 
undeveloped mental traits, the consciousness of certain 
wants. In reality, however, the child born into a society 
such as our own finds, among our materials of culture, the 



44 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

accumulated results of centuries of experience in endeavor- 
ing to satisfy the same human needs. To it is given in 
custom, in institution, and in law our conception of how 
to gratify, in the highest way, the wants arising from the 
impulse of self-preservation; as a means of gratif3dng his 
social needs there are presented to him our ideas of social 
intercourse, of social relations, and of civic hfe; and as 
an end toward which he may labor in giving expression 
and direction to his moral-religious tendencies, there is held 
before him the conception of human attainment and per- 
fection cherished and safeguarded by the American 
people. 

It is generally conceded that the ideals and the knowl- 
edge of means suppUed the individual by psychical en- 
vironment are a powerful factor in determining his life. 
Being schooled in the satisfaction of his wants according 
to these ideals, before he becomes self-conscious, and 
upon obtaining self-consciousness being unable to devise 
better ways, he is disposed to accept them as his own and 
to guide and direct his activities accordingly. Imitation 
and social sanction also work to this end; for few individ- 
uals have the originality to question the standards held 
before them and still fewer have the courage to persist in 
lines of action not socially approved. 

In view of the influences exerted upon the individual 
by psychical environment, the mode of Hfe to which he 
is disposed through it becomes evident, especially if that 
acting upon a particular individual is taken into account. 
The psychical environment acting upon a given individual 
is that of the society to which he belongs. The individual 
is therefore disposed to the t)^e of Hfe as revealed in the 
ideals and made possible through the means suppHed by 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 45 

the materials of culture of the society of which he is a 
member. The German is disposed thereby to life as found 
in Germany, the American to life as it exists in America. 
''4. The Aim of the Individual. — Being thus predisposed 
by heredity and thus disposed by psychical environment, 
what is the end or aim of life that the individual con- 
sciously chooses as his own and consciously endeavors to 
attain? 

The aim of individual hfe, when defined abstractly, is 
self-realization. When expressed concretely, such an aim 
means the realization in one's Hfe of the highest ideals of 
one's own people. But does life according to the highest 
standards of the society of which he is a member become 
Hkewise the individual's idea of self-realization, the ac- 
cepted and conscious goal of his endeavor? There is no 
alternative. On the one hand, he is unable of himself to 
create a single ideal worthy the name, to say nothing of a 
system. All that the most gifted is able to do is to modify, 
add here and there some little increment to the scheme 
held before him. This of itself is a task taxing every 
resource of the mind, for the ideals cherished by society 
are the products of ages upon ages of social cooperation. 
Being powerless to evolve a conception of life worthy 
his nature, the individual can but accept and make his own 
the ideals suppHed him by the social order of which he is a 
part. 

On the other hand, because of the conditions of living as 
a human being, there is no opportunity for the individual 
to enjoy his own scheme of life, were he able to evolve 
such a scheme. There is left him, for example, in the 
matter of occupation no choice except within the limits 
sanctioned by society. If he transcends these, he is socially 



46 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

ostracized or legally restrained. Likewise, there is no 
choice with reference to family life except within the con- 
fines of custom. Marriage in its legal aspects is clearly 
defined, and in its higher ethical and spiritual phases 
crystallized in tradition. Custom likewise circumscribes 
forms of social intercourse, and tradition and law deter- 
mine specific modes of civic life. Infringement upon the 
one calls forth the force of public opinion; infraction of the 
other, the condemnation of the court. Freedom of thought, 
freedom of speech, freedom of conscience are taken for 
granted among highly civiHzed peoples, but the individual 
learns that even here he is bound, and that he is free only 
within the limits of social sanction. The individual is 
thus circumscribed in his activities in every direction; 
the range of his choice is fixed; the ends he can make his 
own are determined for him and not by him. 

Few normal individuals feel the restraint of either of 
these limitations. This is not strange, since the ultimate 
end of society is to promote the highest life of its members, 
and since through heredity there is bred into the individual 
the propensities and capacities requisite to social life, and 
these are formed after birth, through years of training, in 
directions socially acceptable. Being thus socially bred 
and trained, the nature of the normal individual expresses 
itself within the limits prescribed by the social order of 
his people as naturally as the duck takes to water, the 
swallow to the air, or the Norman horse to work, and he 
finds his aim of life instinctively, as it were, in the ideals 
cherished by the society of which he is a member. 

There are two classes, however, who do not do this: 
the one is the criminal, the other the genius; the one is 
the menace, the other the hope of society. The criminal, 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 47 

either because of inherited anti-social tendencies or per- 
verted education, falls below the standard of the social 
group, and he is either exterminated or his influence re- 
duced to a minimum. Even in the criminal class, the 
given individual accepts in the main the scheme of life 
imposed. For it is only in one or in a few particulars 
that he is in opposition and comes into conflict with social 
demands. ; 

Just as the criminal falls below the requirements of 
society, the genius rises above and creates new conceptions 
socially acceptable. But even the genius finds in the main 
his aim of life in the ideals of his people, for at most he is 
able to initiate reforms in only one or two directions. 

If, then, the criminal and the genius are excepted, — 
and this cannot be wholly done, — it may be said that the 
normal individual, bred and determined as he is, finds his 
conception of self-realization expressed in the highest 
ideals of Hfe held by the social order of which he is a part, 
and that life according to these ideals becomes the accepted 
and conscious goal of his endeavor. 

5. The Self -Realization Attainable to the Individual. — 
Since the individual has no other choice than to accept 
the scheme held before him by the social whole of which 
he is a part, it follows that the ideals or ends of life which 
the individual may choose as his own, and consequently 
the self-realization attainable by him, is conditioned by 
society. Since the individual cannot live as a human 
being apart from society, he attains his highest self-realiza- 
tion, therefore, when he lives the fullest and richest life 
made possible by the social order of which he is a member. 
The German thus attains his highest self-realization when 
he accepts and makes his own the highest ideals sanctioned 



48 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

by Germany, the American when he embodies in his hfe 
the best cherished by the American people. 

6. The Relation of Society to the Aim of the Individual. 
— The relation of society to the aim of life held by the 
individual is therefore to be found in the fact that society, 
by acting upon him indirectly through the medium of his 
ancestors, predisposes him to social life in general and, by 
acting upon him directly through materials of culture or 
psychical environment, disposes him to the type of life 
approved by the social order of which the given materials 
of culture or psychical environment is an expression; it 
is also to be found in the fact that, through supplying 
him with the only worthy conception of life and through 
constraining him to accept this conception as his own, it 
conditions the goal of his endeavor and the life attainable 
to him, 

§ 6. The Reciprocal Relation Between Society 
AND THE Individual 

From our present vantage ground it becomes evident 
that the individual and society are not distinct phenomena, 
but that each imphes the other. The individual conditions, 
as we have seen, the existence of society, while society 
conditions the existence of the individual. Social develop- 
ment is dependent upon the individual, but with equal 
truth his development is dependent upon society. The 
individual determines on the one hand the end of society, 
but on the other society determines the aim of individual 
life. Each thus conditions and determines the existence, 
development, and aim of the other. It is this reciprocal 
relationship that is implied in the expression, "No indi- 
vidual without society, no society without the individual." 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 49 

§ 7. Educational Inferences 

The foregoing studies of the reciprocal relation between 
the individual and society were undertaken that insight 
might be gained for the practical work of the school. The 
educational impHcations of the knowledge gained can be 
best understood if first put in the form of inferences. 

1 . Welfare of Society the Interest of the Individual. — Since 
the existence or mode of life, the development, and ends 
attainable to the individual are conditioned by society, the 
individual is interested in the continuation, development, 
and perfection of the social order of which he is a part. 

2. Welfare of the Individual the Interest of Society. — Since 
the existence, development, and perfection of society is 
conditioned by the individual, society is interested in the 
highest mode of life, the highest development and self- 
realization of its members. 

3. Education an Interest of both the Individual and So- 
ciety. — It is generally conceded that the life and develop- 
ment of both the individual and society are conditioned 
by education. The individual on the one hand is therefore 
not only interested in a system of education which will 
foster his own highest development and self-realization, 
but also in a system which will further the existence, 
development, and perfection of the society of which he is 
a part. Society on the other hand is not only interested 
in a system of education which will foster its own existence, 
development, and perfection, but also in a system which 
will provide for the highest mode of Hfe, the highest de- 
velopment and self-realization of its members. 

4. Education Conditioned by Social Needs. — Since the 
mode of life, development, and self-realization of the 



50 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

individual is determined by society, and the continuance 
and improvement of the social order is conditioned by the 
individual, a given society can provide for its existence, 
development, and perfection, and thereby provide for 
fulfilHng its function with reference to the individual only, 
through so educating him that he is able to enter into the 
given social life and become a factor in its continuation 
and improvement. Hence education is a function of 
society, and a system of education which seeks to provide 
for the existence, development, and perfection of a given 
social whole, must promote the development and self- 
reaHzation of the individual, but this development and 
self-realization, this education, must be conditioned by 
the needs of the given society as these are in turn con- 
ditioned by its function. 

5. Highest Interests oj the Individual Conserved by Edu- 
cation Socially Determined. — Since the mode of Hfe, the 
development, and self-reaHzation attainable to the indi- 
vidual are conditioned by society, that education which 
prepares the individual to enter into a given social order 
and to become a factor in its preservation and perfection 
is at the same time the education which prepares him for 
the highest mode of Hfe, the highest development and 
self-realization attainable to him. 

§ 8. Educational Principles 

If the import of these inferences is now generalized, we 
have the following universally applicable principles of 
education: 

I. Education is a function of society, and the educa- 
tional system of a given society must be such as will provide 
for its existence, development, and perfection. 



SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 51 

2. That system of education which provides for the 
existence, development, and perfection of a given society 
is at the same time the system which provides for the 
highest mode of life, the highest development and self- 
realization of its members. 

Readings 

Fiske, Destiny of Man, pp. 42-103. 
Ross, Social Control, pp. 1-40. 

Foundations of Sociology, pp. 327-348. 
Fairbanks, Introduction to Sociology, pp. 260-268. 
Betts, Social Principles of Education, pp. 5-22. 
Baldwin, The Individual and Society, pp. 77-117. 
Abbot, The Rights of Man, pp. 62-193. 
Butler, The Meaning of Education, pp. 1-17. 
Kidd, Social Evolution, pp. 264-275. 
MacCunn, The Making of Character, pp. 1-7. 
Thorndike, Educational Psychology, pp. 47-65, 77-79. 
Muirhead, The Elements of Ethics, pp. 155-162. 



CHAPTER III 
THE NATURE OF THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 

§ I. The Problem 

The individual who lives up to the highest ""and best 
in the life of his people is for all human purposes the per- 
fected individual, the educated in the broadest sense of 
the term. The educated person as thus characterized is 
obviously a very different being from the new-born babe. 
The former has attained the degree of development and 
self-reahzation possible to him under the given social 
conditions, the latter merely has tendencies and capacities 
to be developed in ways that are socially approved. 

The question arises: How is the child educated? What- 
ever answer is given, it will be granted that education is 
conditioned, at least in part, by the nature of the psychi- 
cal life of the individual. There is involved, therefore, 
in the work of education a study of the psychical life of 
the child, if we are to know how to foster and control his 
development. 

§ 2. The Aspects of Psychical Life 

I. The Two Divisions. — The psychical life of the child 
is generally viewed as manifesting itself under three aspects: 
the intellect, feehng, and will. Though this is the division 
accepted in the main and found in our present-day text- 
books upon psychology, it is a comparatively modern view* 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 53 

The earlier division was a dual one, that is, all psychical 
phenomena were grouped as expressions of the intellect 
and of the will. 

Feeling is not, however, ignored by those psychologists 
who hold to the dual division. They maintain that feehng, 
except upon the very highest level of psychical develop- 
ment, cannot be separated from the will, and that all feel- 
ing — other than of pleasure and pain — has its seat in 
the will and is to be regarded as an expression and 
part of it. 

2. The Position of the Teacher. — Though a triple classi- 
fication of psychical phenomena may be favorable to 
descriptive psychology, it is not so for the work of the 
teacher. Even were the weight of evidence not on the side 
of a dual grouping, the position of psychologists upon the 
culture of the emotions makes possible its acceptance in 
education, as it is generally agreed that the culture of the 
emotions depends on the one hand upon intellectual and 
on the other upon will development. Consequently, in 
the work of the school the culture of the emotions, apart 
from that of the intellect and will, may be ignored. This 
is, however, not to be taken to imply that the development 
of the emotions is not of importance; it merely means 
that their normal culture is a necessary result and part 
of normal intellectual and will development. 

The teacher may, therefore, without doing violence to 
any psychological theory, regard the psychical Hfe of the 
child as having but two aspects, that of the intellect and 
that of the will. The grounds for accepting this division 
and its advantages for education will become manifest as 
we proceed. 



54 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

§ 3. The Will 

1. Meaning of Will. — The conception of the will which 
students of education find most helpful is gained from 
considering it in relation to life. When thus regarded the 
will is that aspect of Hfe which prompts to action. In 
the lower animals, the will excites to activities related to 
the existence and preservation of the organism and to 
reproduction. In the higher orders, and especially in man, 
it impels not only to activities related to the fulfillment 
of these functions but also to activities conducive to the 
enjoyment of other phases of human life. Every organism 
thus strives to live the Hfe to which it is predestined by 
its nature. The will is consequently to be identified with 
our inherited tendencies, and may be defined as Hfe in 
its dynamic aspect, or as a system of impulses arising 
from inherited propensities. 

To vary Hfe in its essential characteristics is to vary 
the will. Because of this relation between the will and 
Hfe, the wiU of the amoeba is one thing, that of the butter- 
fly another, and that of man stih another. The wiU is 
consequently not something apart from Hfe; it is Hfe in 
so far as this manifests itself in impulse. 

2. The Elements of the Will. — Impulse, as regarded by 
psychologists, is so closely connected, on the one hand, 
with instinct that instincts are often cafled impulses, and 
on the other, it is so closely identified with desire that 
desire is defined as impulse associated with a conscious 
end. We have, then, in impulse a term employed not 
only to include those tendencies known as instincts, but 
employed also to designate the basis of desire. 

We would not only characterize the elements of the 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 55 

will as impulses, but as primal impulses. By thus desig- 
nating its elements, we not only associate them with those 
inherited characteristics which constitute the foundations 
of human nature, but identify the will with those per- 
manent tendencies which arise from these characteristics 
and which, when once they have made their appearance, 
exert their influence upon hfe at every later period. 

Although often regarded as being the same, a primal 
impulse is to be distinguished from an instinct. An in- 
stinct arises, to be sure, out of an inherited characteristic, 
and in this sense it is an impulse. An instinct, however, 
may be transitory, it may be inhibited, or it may be buried 
in a consciously formed habit and lose its impelling force. 
Not so with a primal impulse: it arises out of a basic 
predisposition and is consequently permanent; it does not 
vanish nor can it be wholly inhibited. A primal impulse 
may, of course, be subordinated and transformed, be 
cr^^stallized in habit, but it never entirely loses its force 
of propulsion. It is preferable, therefore, to view instincts 
as specialized expressions of primal impulses, as the special 
forms in which impulses manifest themselves. Fear, for 
example, is an instinct, and this mode of emotional reaction 
serves as a protective agency. But the congenital tendency 
of creatures to conserve their existence is a primal impulse, 
and fear is only one of the manifestations of this tendency. 
Anger and the fighting instinct may be similarly resolved. 
Any one or all of these instincts may disappear, but the 
primary tendency of the organism to act with reference 
to its preservation remains. In like manner are all in- 
stincts to be regarded and interpreted. 

The primal impulses, constituting the elements of the 
will, are the impulse of self-preservation, the impulse of 



56 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION' 

race-preservation, the impulse of sociality, the intellectual 
impulse, the artistic impulse, and the moral-religious 
impulse. 

3. Characterization of the Elements of the Will. — To 
make clear the nature and character of the human will, 
there is need to characterize each of its elements. 

{a) The impulse of self-preservation. — The existence 
of the impulse of self-preservation cannot be questioned, 
and that it is the basic one of sentient creatures is little 
doubted. For, of what value would it be to an organism 
to be endowed with all that is implied, especially in self- 
conscious life, were it not moved by a deep-rooted ten- 
dency to sustain and protect itself? 

Because of its importance, the impulse of self-preserva- 
tion is the oldest propensity of human nature, and the 
first to make its appearance in the life of the child. During 
a considerable period it is the dominating impulse, and it 
is questionable whether its potency decreases much as 
the child advances in years. Other tendencies may exert 
their influence for a time, then be deadened, overridden, 
and almost trodden out, but it is impossible to do this 
with the impulse of self-preservation, at least in the case 
of the majority of individuals. For, even when through 
long periods of suffering and misfortune Kfe seems no 
longer worth living, the slightest change in circumstances 
will restore this impulse with its persistent power, and Hfe 
again becomes dear and worthy of every struggle. Like- 
wise, when through education and discipline the impulse 
of self-preservation seems to have been brought into 
subjection, in an instant it will break all bonds and trans- 
form a cultured audience imperiled by fire into a horde of 
frantic beasts. Though in deliberative action other im- 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 57 

pulses may control, in all sudden emergencies of life where 
danger is involved and impulse rather than reason rules, 
it is nearly always the impulse of self-preservation that 
determines action. 

The function of this impulse is to guarantee the exist- 
ence of Ufe. Impelled by it, every creature instinctively 
seeks to sustain and protect itself, and its own preserva- 
tion becomes as a rule the first interest of every organism. 
Its function is fulfilled through exciting two distinct lines 
of activity: the one has to do with nutrition, the other 
with protection. The one Hne of activity supplies the 
materials for the sustenance of Hfe, the other shields the 
organism from influences that might prove destructive. 
Each of these lines of activity is excited by special man- 
ifestations of the impulse in the form of particular instincts. 
Those activities serving as protective are excited by self- 
love, fear, anger, and pugnacity, whereas activities that 
have to do with sustenance are stimulated by hunger and 
cold. 

In connection with this impulse, there are certain re- 
lated instincts which also impel to acts of self-preservation. 
Though other impulses have had a part in their rise, that 
of self-preservation has been the most influential. Among 
the most important of these related instincts are self- 
ishness, emulation, ambition, rivalry, constructiveness, 
and acquisitiveness, or the collecting instinct. 

The significance, for the hfe of the individual and for 
that of society, of the impulse of self-preservation with 
its varied forms of expression and related instincts can 
scarcely be over-estimated. On the part of the individual, 
it gives color and bias to his whole life. It Hes at the basis 
of his combativeness, selfishness, and so-called egotism. 



58 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

Still more important is the fact that, in the form of hunger 
and cold, it dooms the individual to a perpetual struggle 
for subsistence and to a life of labor and of practical activ- 
ity, while the satisfaction of the needs arising from hunger 
and cold becomes one of the strongest motives dominating 
human action. 

On the other hand, the impulse of self-preservation 
has deep sociological import. Through conditioning in 
large measure the life activities of the individual, it de- 
termines to a considerable degree both the form and 
structure of society. It has given rise to the larger part 
of industry, also to modes of protection to life and to 
property. Indeed, only as certain of the phases of society 
are viewed with reference to protection and nutrition is 
the reason for their existence and their function to be 
understood, and only as the relation between these and 
the human needs arising from this impulse is grasped is 
it possible to appreciate the direction that this element 
of the will must be given in the education of the young, 
and to appreciate the source and character of certain 
materials that must be used in giving it appropriate ex- 
pression and determination. 

(b) The impulse of race-preservation. — By the impulse 
of race-preservation is meant the sex-instinct and those 
instincts directly related to it, such as love in its different 
forms. This impulse is found in all but the lowest orders 
of sentient life, and it is a question whether it does not 
manifest itself even there. 

The function of the impulse of race-preservation is to 
stimulate the organism to the reproduction and preserva- 
tion of its kind. In its simplest expression, for example, 
among insects, frogs, and fish it excites merely to repro- 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 59 

duction, but in the higher orders, such as birds, monkeys, 
and men it impels also to the nourishment, protection, 
and education of offspring. 

This impulse does not appear in human beings until 
about the twelfth year. Of its manifestations, the first to 
arise is the sex-instinct, which reveals itself in a growing 
fondness for association with the opposite sex. Upon 
the heels of this stalks romantic love, and the impulse to 
establish a home. Closely related to these is the parental 
instinct which fills the heart with a longing for children. 
With the advent of children, there comes parental love 
and love of kindred. These give rise on the part of the 
mother to patience, carefulness, tenderness, sympathy, 
and self-sacrifice, and on the part of the father to courage, 
strength, industry, manHness, and self-reHance. When 
the impulse of race-preservation thus once appears, it never 
disappears, for in some form or other it continues to sweep 
the individual into relations from which he cannot escape, 
but which bring to the human heart the most precious 
experiences of Hfe. 

Although each primal impulse has its distinctive charac- 
teristics, they are not isolated psychic forces, but are 
reciprocally related and conditioned both in their evo- 
lution and in the exercise of their compulsion. The im- 
pulse of race-preservation illustrates this. On the one 
hand, this impulse is closely related to that of self-preser- 
vation and exerts thereupon a restraining and refining 
influence. On the other hand, it is not difficult to under- 
stand how its higher expressions add strength both to the 
impulse of sociality and to the artistic impulse. As an 
evidence of the latter, love in some one of its forms con- 
stitutes the chief and never-dying theme of music, poetry, 



6o PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

and other fine arts. The connection between religion and 
the sex-instinct is also close and has been of late a favorite 
topic with writers upon adolescence. In a similar way, 
the relation of each of the primal impulses to the others 
might be traced. 

. Returning to the impulse of race-preservation, its indi- 
vidual and social implications tax the resources of the 
imagination. On the side of the former, as an expression 
of one of the vital functions of life, it lies at the basis of 
certain of the physical and psychical differences between 
the sexes. It is also the source of one of the strongest 
and most revolutionary forces playing upon the individual, 
a force sufficiently strong to redeem him from himself 
and to turn him in the direction of cooperation and al- 
truism. On the other hand, it is the foundation of the 
family, an important factor in the social order as seen 
in the clan, tribe, or in democratic society, and it con- 
tributes no small part to the instrumentahties of culture. 
Both its individual and social impHcations are thus sum- 
marized by Haeckel,^ "We glorify love as the source of 
the most splendid creations of art; of the noblest pro- 
ductions of poetry, of plastic art, and of music; we rever- 
ence in it the most powerful factor in human civiliza- 
tion, the basis of family Hfe, and, consequently, of the 
development of the state." 

(c) The impulse of sociaHty. — Man as now known is a 
social animal. Wherever found he Hves in small groups 
of two or more famiHes, and wherever two or more fami- 
lies roam over the same land, they have more or less 
friendly relations with other similar groups of the same 
region, meeting with them for council, defense, religious 
1 Haeckel, The Evolution of Man, Vol. ii, p. 394. 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 6i 

ceremonies, or amusement. That savage man is almost 
always at war with adjacent tribes is no argument against 
his instinctive social nature, as the social impulse never 
extends to all individuals of the same species. Witness 
present-day antipathy between the white and the black. 
Whether man was originally a social creature and whether 
his social disposition is acquired is not the important point; 
the fact remains that as known to anthropology, psychol- 
ogy, and sociology he is social. So general is the presence 
of the impulse of sociaHty that the recluse or hermit is 
regarded as abnormal. 

This impulse is deep-rooted and, after those of self- 
and race-preservation, is the strongest propensity of human 
nature. It is felt in the dislike for soHtude and in the 
longing for companionship beyond that of the family 
circle. When isolation is temporarily enforced, the desire 
for human association becomes a passion, and the sHghtest 
sign of human presence is heralded with dehght. Its 
strength is revealed in Darwin's story of three Patagonians 
who preferred being shot rather than to betray the plans 
of their companions in war; so strong is this fellow-feeling 
in civiHzed man, that he instinctively risks his own to save 
the Kfe of a fellow creature, though he be a total stranger, 
and to its titanic strength is due in large measure the 
fascination of the crowd, the charm of the city, and the 
soHdarity of society. 

Though the social impulse prompts to activities favor- 
able to procuring food, to providing defense, and to securing 
care for the young, it does not fulfill its function in thus 
contributing directly to the maintenance of the physical 
life of the individual and of the race. It fulfills its function 
more particularly through making possible a higher spirit- 



62 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

ual existence. In isolation, the individual is weak and 
unable by his own efforts to attain the development of 
which he is susceptible; impelled by the impulse of sociality, 
he associates with his fellowmen and cooperates with them. 
Life is thereby brought into touch with Hfe, the strength, 
experience, and insight of all are placed at the service of 
each, and not only is the way to higher life opened, but also 
the way to positive achievement in economic and artistic 
production, in the increase of knowledge and of culture. 

The impulse of sociality first manifests itself in the life 
of the child in the form of gregariousness, which may be 
observed as early as the seventh week, when the babe 
shows pleasure in the presence of others. A somewhat 
later expression is sympathy, which appears at about the 
middle of the second year and which is extended in the 
beginning more particularly to those of the same age. 
At about ten or twelve, there appears the "group instinct," 
accompanied by the formation of cliques and clubs like the 
"North Siders," "South Siders," "East Enders," "West 
Enders." This is closely followed by what Mr. Pearson 
calls the "socialistic instinct," when the welfare of the 
society of which the growing youth is a member becomes 
of interest to him. Finally, with the approach of middle 
adolescence, there appears the "humanistic instinct," 
which binds the youth to aU humanity and causes him to 
feel that the nations of the world ought to be one federa- 
tion working in harmony for the elevation of the race. 

On the side of the individual, this impulse is the source 
of those tendencies inclining him to cooperative life and 
of those emotions which exert a restraining influence upon 
both the impulse of self- and of race-preservation and re- 
fine human relations outside the family, and from it spring 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 63 

those acts that the world calls morally beautiful. With- 
out the impulse of sociality, the individual would be dis- 
posed to be indifferent to all save himself and to what he 
might call his family, and there would be lost to him those 
motives for action arising from sympathy, social interest, 
and humanitarianism, also the products of cooperative hfe 
so essential to his development. On the part of society, 
this impulse lies at its foundation, and although it is not 
the only impulse contributing to social Hfe, it is the chief 
one. It has strengthened cooperative endeavor, facilitated 
the rise of industry and the division of labor, fostered 
forms of human intercourse, and rendered possible the 
development of mighty peoples homogeneous in thought, 
feeling, and ideals. 

(d) The intellectual impulse. — The intellectual impulse 
is not so strong as the impulses considered above. Its 
force is felt, however, by all, and in its highest form — 
the love of truth — it becomes the dominant passion of some. 

The intellect as such does not imply the existence of 
an impelKng force prompting to its use; the incentive for 
this arises, at least in part, from other impulses as they 
manifest themselves in wants. These, however, supply 
no motive for mental labor when there is no practical 
necessity. It is at this point that the function of the 
intellectual impulse becomes apparent, as it supplies the 
force that impels to mental effort even when there is no 
practical need to satisfy, and even when the utiHty of 
the endeavor is not evident. The individual is thereby 
led to make discoveries which unexpectedly prove valuable, 
and he is thus fitted in advance for the satisfaction of his 
wants and fore-prepared to meet the difficulties of Hfe. 
The intellectual impulse fulfills its function, therefore, 



64 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

when it prompts to intellectual endeavor which may 
ultimately minister to human need. 

The first manifestation of the intellectual impulse is 
the "appetite of the senses" — the mere delight in sen- 
sation. The force is independent of whatever influence 
the simple present needs of the infant may exert, and 
through it the child is constrained almost from birth to 
handle, taste, smell, and explore every object coming 
within his grasp or within the range of his vision. In this 
way he gains control of his senses and comes to coordinate 
them, and at the same time lays the basis of liis future 
knowledge of the qualities and characteristics of common 
objects. 

Closely related to the "appetite of the senses" is curios- 
ity. Curiosity impels toward the new, and leads the child 
into regions beyond the circle of his immediate needs. 
He is thereby equipped against the future; for knowledge 
gained in an idle moment may forearm him to meet some 
emergency which otherwise might inflict pain or prove 
his destruction, or a series of pleasant experiences or acci- 
dental discoveries may open to him a new world of pleasure 
and a future field of labor. 

Akin to curiosity is the love of truth. It is this form 
of the impulse that dominates the scientist, the poet, and 
the philosopher, and leads to scientific discoveries, poetic 
and philosophic creations. Yet, in the economy of the 
world, most of these creations prove to have as far-reaching 
practical value as if they were pursued alone in the view 
of utilitarian ends. 

Perhaps no other manifestation of the intellectual 
impulse has been so much discussed and so extolled as 
imitation. So fundamental to the mental Hfe of the child 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 65 

is it, that James ^ holds, ^'His whole educability and in fact 
the whole history of civilization depends upon this trait." 
Exaggerated as this estimate of the importance of imita- 
tion may be, as an instinctive tendency to act in a manner 
similar to others it is undoubtedly a perpetual spur to 
mental effort. To be associated with imitation is play. 

The intellectual impulse, by reason of its characteristics, 
supplies, on the one hand, the primary conditions for the 
formal education of the child. It tends also to transform 
the physical world, to a greater extent than would other- 
wise be the case under the sole stimulus of practical need, 
into an object of interest and thereby furnishes additional 
motive for scientific investigation; it likewise tends to 
make man himself, his possibilities, and his destiny, more an 
object of study, and thus adds increased incentive to poetic 
production and philosophic speculation; it also opens to 
him one of the greatest fields of human labor — the dis- 
covery and dissemination of truth. On the other hand, 
the intellectual impulse contributes materially to social 
existence and improvement. For it lies at the basis of the 
purely intellectual and cultural activities and institutions 
of society, such as museums, and literary, historical, and 
scientific associations, and it is no small factor in all that 
is included under the term, ''the press." 

(e) The artistic impulse. — The artistic impulse is to 
be identified with our instinctive appreciation of beauty. 
A distinction must be made, of course, between the im- 
pulse and what is regarded as beautiful. For, although 
there are no universally recognized standards of beauty, 
all peoples appreciate the beauty of some things and create 
what to them is beautiful. 

^ James, Psychology, Vol. ii, pp. 408-409. 



66 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

The utility of the artistic impulse lies in the fact that it 
prompts the individual to activities beneficial to himself 
and to others. The fine arts, particularly in their earli- 
est development, served this end. Dancing, poetry, and 
music, arising from the instinctive appreciation of beauty 
and from the tendency to act so as to attract others, were, 
on the one hand, a source of pleasure to the individual, 
and on the other, a medium of inculcating common thoughts 
and feehngs, common ideals and habits, all of which con- 
served higher modes of social life and contributed to the 
welfare of both the individual and the race. 

This appreciation of beauty and this tendency to act in 
ways attractive to others fostered also the ornamentation 
of the person and of related things, such as weapons, tools, 
and utensils; strength, too, was added to the custom 
through these decorations serving as signs of communi- 
cation and distinction and as means of inspiring fear. 

Architecture, sculpture, and painting had a like origin, 
springing from the pleasure the individual derived from 
their creation and contemplation, and from his effort to 
attract those in position and power, or to honor and ap- 
pease some departed spirit. In the hands of those in 
authority, these came later to be employed as instruments 
to increase their prestige and power, while with the clergy 
architecture, sculpture, and painting served as a means 
of teaching truth, of moulding sentiment, and of inspiring 
respect and obedience. 

Such is the general utility of the artistic impulse. Its 
function, in view of its utiHty, is therefore to enrich the 
Hfe of the individual, and to promote higher forms of 
social life. By rendering the individual appreciative of 
beauty, it increases the volume of his pleasure and exposes 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 67 

him to cultural influences; while under the impulse to 
artistic production, the artist exerts an elevating and 
unifying force upon others and thereby contributes to social 
soHdarity, the primary function of art. 

The artistic impulse is not so strong as some of the older 
impulses, nor is it so definite in its modes of reaction and 
expression, yet it is quite as constant in its promptings. 
From its relationship to the impulse of self-preservation, 
race-preservation, and sociahty, it does not manifest itself 
fuUy, until these attain a reasonable maturity. In early 
childhood, the aesthetic sense is largely sensory, and the 
child delights in colored objects and pictures and in their 
creation, in music and poetry with a pronounced rhythm 
and in their rendition, but finds aesthetic pleasure in little 
else. His idea of beauty depends largely upon what is 
physically agreeable. There is no decided change in his 
taste or any marked interest in artistic production until 
the beginning of puberty, when within a night, as it were, 
there is born a pride and a delight in his own appearance 
and in the appearance of the other members of the family 
and of the home. With the rising forces of adolescence, 
there is also an added tendency toward artistic creation 
and a growing love for music, poetry, painting, architec- 
ture, and sculpture. 

The full import of the artistic impulse has not as yet 
been recognized. Nevertheless, on the part of the indi- 
vidual it yields to him experiences that make up a con- 
siderable part of the pleasures of life. For those especially 
endowed, a line of activity is opened which may lead into 
any one or into all of the fine arts and enable those thus 
favored to become benefactors of the race. On the part 
of society, it is the source of one of its phases, giving rise 



68 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

to all that has to do with fostering the artistic sense and 
increasing the enjoyment of beauty, such as, for example, 
art galleries and museums, conservatories of music, art 
displays, and concerts. It also affects and contributes to 
almost every other phase, for note the place of art in 
industry, in religion, and its influence upon social inter- 
course in general. Furthermore, it is the primary medium 
of giving permanent expression to social ideals and, in the 
hand of society, is a powerful means in elevating the 
thought and unifying the purposes of the masses, in exalt- 
ing the dignity of office and of institutions, and in securing 
respect and obedience to social decrees. 

(/) The moral-religious impulse. — Under the moral- 
reHgious impulse is to be brought the instinctive tendency 
to do what is approved, the instinctive sense of obligation 
in the presence of duty, the longing to realize a moral ideal 
and to bring the self into harmonious relation with the 
Divine Will. 

With reference to the instinctive character of morality, 
Sutherland^ writes, "The moral instinct, . . . is, in social 
animals, the result of that selective process among the emo- 
tions which tend to encourage those that are mutually 
helpful, and to weaken those that are mutually harmful." 
Stephen 2 says, "Children, no doubt, start with infinitely 
varying aptitudes for moral culture." Perez is of like 
opinion. "The moral sense, then," says he,^ "is one of 
the hereditary faculties most liable to be modified by 
circumstances." 

Similar high authority may be quoted with respect to 

1 Sutherland, Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, vol. ii. p. 304. 

2 Stephen, Science of Ethics, p. 419. 

* Perez, First Three Years of Childhood, p. 287. 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 69 

the instinctive character of religion. ^'Religion/' writes 
Bender/ '4s that activity of the human impulse toward 
self-preservation by means of which man seeks to carry 
his essential vital purposes through against the adverse 
pressure of the world by raising himself freely towards the 
world's ordering and governing powers when the Hmits 
of his own strength are reached." Marshall ^ maintains 
that, '^ Religious activities are the expression of a true 
instinct, which we may properly speak of as a religious 
instinct." 

The function of the moral-religious impulse is to sub- 
ordinate impulses of individuaHstic import to those having 
social significance. The utiHty of such an impulse to 
society is great. The older nations found religion the 
most powerful instrument in curbing individualism, in 
inculcating respect for custom and law, and in inspiring 
courage and self-sacrifice, whereas in all civilized societies 
of the present it is the chief means of quickening the con- 
science, of instilling ideals, and of holding men to their 
reahzation. On the other hand, the moral-religious im- 
pulse has great worth for the individual. The expression, 
''Man's extremity is God's opportunity," is a potent 
truth. For, when man is in distress and is driven into 
surrender and sacrifice, he finds help in religion. Under 
the stress and burdens of the world, he cries out for repose 
and a richer life, and to give this more satisfying life is 
the function of religion. Furthermore, the fruits of the 
moral-rehgious impulse — contentment, purity, charity, 
self-control, love — are qualities essential to the highest 
personal Kving. 

1 Quoted from James, Varieties of Religious Experiences, p. 507. 

2 Marshall, Instinct and Reason, p. 217. 



70 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

The moral-religious impulse makes its appearance 
somewhat late in the development of the child. Yet the 
moral instinct appears in an objective sense of right and 
wrong surprisingly early, though it does not become 
strong and active, even within the range of the child's own 
world, much before the age of five or six. Just when the 
child's heart is first stirred by the religious impulse is hard 
to say, and it is more difficult to tell whether the early 
religious thoughts and actions of children are merely 
imitative or whether they are accompanied by genuine 
religious emotions. Starbuck^ is inclined to think the 
earliest of these are external and lack meaning. The 
mere putting of religious questions and the mere imitation 
of religious activities, to say the least, begin about the 
fourth year and continue with increasing frequency, and 
whatever question there may be about the presence of the 
religious impulse during these earlier years, there can be 
none after the age of twelve or fourteen. This marks, 
beyond doubt, the beginning of genuine religious life and 
the period when the moral-religious impulse is most active 
and its impelHng force almost irresistible. 

The significance of this impulse is too well understood to 
need discussion. Morality and religion He at the founda- 
tion of society and influence its every aspect. To the 
individual, they open a source of life from which he draws 
his highest inspiration and his most sustaining hope. 
In a word, as Professor James puts it, " Society and the 
individual without morality and religion would be like 
the body void of the spirit of life." 

4. Primary Characteristics of the Will. — Such are the 
constituent elements of the human will, and such are 
* Starbuck, Psychology and Religion, pp. 28-48. 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 71 

certain of their characteristics. It remains to point out 
those characteristics that are primary. 

First, the primal impulses — the elements of the will — 
impel the individual to activity, though in but few in- 
stances is this propulsion so definite in man as in animals. 
With the latter, the coordination between inherited tend- 
encies and motor centers is practically fixed before birth, 
and the appropriate action is performed under the stress 
of instinct. As an illustration, take the migratory or the 
nest-building instinct of the bird. Still, the primal im- 
pulses do constrain the individual to well-defined modes 
of action, give rise to definite needs, and as such are to be 
viewed as psychic forces which constrain to action. 

Second, as psychic forces, the quantity of the force 
exerted by the primal impulses may be increased or de- 
creased. This may be decreased through certain of their 
transitory forms, as instincts, ripening, expending their 
energy, and fading away; or it may be decreased through 
long periods of inhibition and consequent disuse. The 
case of Darwin, who lost his interest in art, is in point. 
In a word, the primal impulses are subject to the 'Maw of 
disuse," and, through failure to give an impulse appropriate 
expression, the force exerted by it may be reduced to a 
minimum. On the other hand, they are subject to the 
''law of use," and, through indulgence or free expression, 
the quantity of propulsion exerted by any one or by all 
primal impulses may be increased. Witness the religious 
enthusiast, the devotee of art, the savant of science. 

Third, the primal impulses will find expression, but the 
mode of this is subject to control and direction. Human 
beings are endowed with the impulse of self-preservation, 
but whether they subsist like Fuegians or Americans is 



72 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

not a question of impulse but of how this impulse is 
expressed, or their physical needs satisfied. The Green- 
lander and the Italian are gifted with artistic sense, but 
whether a crude carving of an arctic animal or a Sistine 
Madonna is created, depends upon the direction given 
the tendency. Likewise, as with all impulses, their expres- 
sion is subject to modification and guidance. 

Fourth, Uke all forces, the elements of the human will 
are in themselves bhnd; they merely impel the individual 
to action. Fear, for example, — a form of the impulse of 
self-preservation, — may cause the individual to take to 
his legs, but of itself it brings forth no artificial means of 
defense; hunger, a second form, dooms him to search for 
food, yet of itself it tames no animals, cultures no fruits, 
tills no fields; cold, a third, drives him to seek shelter, 
but like fear and hunger it builds no houses, manufactures 
no clothes. The artistic impulse constrains him to artistic 
production, but it reveals no worthy object, except indi- 
rectly as the artistic sense is satisfied by a given creation. 
Independent of other influences, the primal impulses are, 
therefore, mere bhnd forces condemning the individual to 
a life of activity, but the ends toward which this activity 
must be directed to the greatest advantage are supplied 
from other sources. 

5. The Will and Life. — Notwithstanding impulses are 
but blind forces constraining to action, they determine the 
principal forms or phases of Hfe. Sentient creatures, for 
example, are endowed with the impulses of self- and of 
race-preservation, and are thereby predisposed to ways 
of life, conducive to the conservation of the self and to the 
continuation of the race. Those organisms gifted with a 
social tendency live in groups, whereas those more or less 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 73 

devoid of the social impulse seek isolation. So invariably 
is life conditioned by impulse and so deep-rooted are even 
certain human tendencies, that Sutherland is able to find 
traces of morality among the higher animals, and Romanes 
is inclined to think that among them forms of fetichism 
are also to be found. Each impulse thus calls forth a 
given Hne of action, and the different phases of human 
activity to which the primal impulses constituting the 
human will give rise may be characterized as the industrial, 
the social, the intellectual, the artistic, and the moral- 
rehgious. 

The primal impulses, as the elements of the human 
will, not only condition the forms or the phases of human 
life, but also the character of these with respect to both 
knowledge and action. Viewing Hfe chronologically, Paul- 
sen^ says: ''Knowing nothing of Hfe and its content, this 
germinal will keeps on generating new impulses; they 
follow each other like the impulses of a plant; the impulse 
to walk, to climb, to speak, to play with horses and soldiers, 
or with dolls and clothes, to build or to cook, to hear and 
to tell stories, and to see and to understand things. Then 
at last, at the end of boyhood, the love of the other sex 
suddenly breaks out as a new, unheard-of impulse, and 
for a time constitutes the fundamental theme of inner Hfe. 
Gradually the impulses of manhood force themselves into 
the foreground; work and acquisition, position and 
fame for himself and his children become the great topics 
of a man's life, until finally, involution begins and death 
closes the account." James gives expression to the same 
thought: ''With the child, life is all play and fairy-tales 
and learning the external properties of 'things'; with the 
^ Paulsen, Introdtiction to Philosophy, p. 116. 



74 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

youth, it is bodily exercise of a more systematic sort, 
novels of the real world, boon-fellowship and song, friend- 
ship and love, nature, travel and adventure, science and 
philosophy; with the man, ambition and policy, acquisi- 
tiveness, responsibihty to others, and the selfish zest of 
the battle of Hfe." This dependence of the content of 
the different phases of human life upon the primal impulses 
is doubly emphasized, if the effect of the lack of proper 
expression or of mal-expression of their various forms is 
observed. When such has been the case, there are great 
barren and desert gaps in the hfe of the individual, great 
blocks of the content of a well-rounded development are 
missing, and these can never be restored, however favor- 
able later conditions may be. 

6. The Place of the Will in Life. — The place occupied 
by the will in human life may now be brought to view, if 
in thought one after another of the elements of the human 
will is withdrawn. Deprive the individual, for example, 
of every vestige of the moral-rehgious impulse, and all 
moral and religious activity or the whole phase of moral 
and rehgious Hfe is closed to him. Erase every trace of 
the artistic impulse, and the individual is dead to all that 
falls within the category of the beautiful. Put out every 
spark of the intellectual impulse, and only that of imme- 
diate utiHty is of interest. Take away every tendency to 
sociality, and you have the ideal hermit. Kill every 
stirring of the impulse of race-preservation, and the celibate 
exists in reality. Deaden that of self-preservation in all 
of its forms, and there remains nothing but a lump of 
inanimate clay. The individual deprived of the will, 
even though he possessed self-consciousness and all that it 
implies, would be as inactive, cold, and disinterested as 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 75 

the statue carved in his image. But reverse the process, 
and with the introduction of each primal impulse there 
are added new energies, new needs, new interests, new 
motives, — a basis for a new hne of activity, — and with 
the addition of the last, he is endowed with the elements 
opening to him the whole range of human hfe. In view 
of what the individual is with his will constituted as it is 
and of what he would be without it, the will can occupy 
none other than the place of primacy in the psychical hfe 
of the individual. 

To assign to the will the place of primacy in psychical 
life is no new thought. This has been done since the days 
of Aristotle. With reference to this point Schopenhauer^ 
says, ''The will is the inner, true, and indestructible essence 
of man. ... It is the primary phenomenon of the organ- 
ism." ''The original fact of every soul-life," writes Paul- 
sen,2 "is a concrete, definitely determined will. The original 
form of the will is impulse." 

§ 4. The Intellect 

I. The Meaning of the Intellect. — As with the will, so 
with the intellect, — the most helpful conception for the 
teacher is gained from considering the latter in its relation 
to hfe. When thus regarded, the intellect is the medium 
through which hfe comes to know itself and its ends, to 
know the conditions environing it and the means contrib- 
uting to the achievement of its purposes. As such a 
medium, the intellect is not something apart from life; 
it is life revealing itself unto itself. Although a mani- 
festation thereof, the intellect is not commensurate with 

1 Schopenhauer, Fourfold Root atid Will in Nature, p. 236. 

2 Paulsen, Introduction to Philosophy, p. 119. 



76 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

life, for life is more than the intellect. Indeed, life is well 
up in the higher orders before the intellect is to be found 
in other than its simplest forms, and it is only in man that 
it appears in its highest development. The intellect may 
then be defined as life in its cognitive or knowing aspect. 

2. The Intellect and the Intellectual Impulse. — As thus 
defined, the intellect is to be distinguished from the intel- 
lectual impulse. The latter, to be sure, is vitally related 
to the intellect and directly influences mental activity. 
Still, the one is no part of the other, for the two belong to 
different aspects of life: the one to its knowing or cogni- 
tive, the other to its dynamic aspect; the one is a source of 
propulsion, the other, of impressions and ideas. Being a 
source of knowledge and not of propulsion, it is therefore 
incorrect to think of the intellect as one of the forces of 
life. For it ^'is not a power," in the words of Spencer, 
^'but an instrument — not a thing which itself moves 
and works, but a thing which is moved and worked by 
forces behind it." 

3. The Intellect as the Medium of Direction and Control. 
— Though an instrument, the intellect fills an important 
office. On the one hand, it is the medium which supplies 
life with the means of directing its impulses in their ex- 
pression in action. Under the sole dominion of impulse, 
the individual is driven about at random, like an engine 
under a full head of steam without the guiding rail, or 
like a ship under full sail without a helm. But what the 
rail is to the engine, or the helm to the ship, the intellect 
is to fife. The individual, to illustrate, is moved to action 
by hunger, but this of itself reveals no means of gratifica- 
tion; it is the intellect alone that does this. Again, he 
is stirred by the impulse of sociality, and the intellect 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 77 

evolves modes of social intercourse adapted to its expres- 
sion and satisfaction. By the intellect being the medium 
of direction, we mean, then, that it yields to the individual 
such insight into ends, and suppKes him with such knowl- 
edge of means, that he is able through the direction of ac- 
tion to give a desired expression to his impulses; to give 
such expression to the constructive instinct, for example, 
that a wigwam or a canoe is made according to his 
desire. 

On the other hand, the intellect is the medium which 
suppHes life with the means of controlling the expression 
of its impulses. The primal impulses are in the early 
part of child-Hfe under no conscious control. In conse- 
quence, these impulses are often at war with each other 
and the child is at the mercy of the strongest. Impulses 
must, however, be controlled, that is, in a given situation 
a particular tendency should be given free expression, in 
another it should be inhibited. It is the intellect that 
enables the child to do this. For example, he is impelled 
by the fighting instinct to fight, but in view of his knowl- 
edge of the unpleasant consequences of such action, the 
tendency is inhibited. Or he is constrained by the acquisi- 
tive instinct to collect some shells, and in view of his 
knowledge of the pleasure to be derived, the impulse is 
confirmed and the shells collected. By the intellect being 
the medium of control, we mean, then, that it supplies 
the individual with such insight into values, that he is 
able — in view of the recognized worth of the experience 
to be derived from putting a particular impulse into active 
expression — to confirm or inhibit it. 

4. Levels of Direction and Control. — Impulses are di- 
rected and controlled upon four different levels. These 



78 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

levels correspond to the four stages in the development of 
self-conscious life, and may be characterized as the assimi- 
lative, the perceptual, the conceptual, and the systematic 
levels of direction and control. We are interested more 
particularly in the perceptual and the conceptual. 

5. The Intellect and Direction and Control of Impulse on 
the Perceptual Level. — The basis of the direction of impulse 
upon the perceptual level is the concrete idea or concrete 
idea-whole. Examples may be observed among young 
children. Preyer 's child in its seventeenth month wanted 
his toys. Remembering that they were in a cupboard 
and failing in tr3dng to reach them, he brought a travehng 
bag, got upon it, and secured them. The child was moved 
to action by the play instinct; the memory of his play- 
things and where they were gave rise to the desire to get 
them, and his activities were consciously directed to that 
end on the basis of a memory idea of how he or others 
obtained things they could not reach. The later imitative 
activities of children are also illustrative of this type of 
direction, such as are to be seen in the playing of house- 
keeping, grocer3anan, dehveryman, poHceman, or Indian; 
likewise are the activities of children as manifest in the 
dramatization of stories and in the making of such ob- 
jects as a wigwam, water-wheel, or flower-stand. In such 
cases, the child is moved to action by the play, the artistic, 
or the constructive instinct, and the given impulse is 
directed in its expression in action upon the basis of a 
concrete idea or concrete idea-whole of what the grocery- 
man, deliveryman, or policeman does, or upon the basis 
of a concrete idea-whole of the separate scenes of the 
story, or of how a given object looks and is made. 

The control of impulse on this level presupposes, on the 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 79 

other hand, concrete knowledge of particular needs and of 
the value of their satisfaction, or concrete knowledge of 
the particular value of the experiences resulting from the 
expression of a given impulse in a given way. The child's 
knowledge, on this level of development, of his needs and 
of the value of his experiences is of course incomplete, yet 
it is sufficient to supply the basis for the rise of motive 
and for the simpler forms of control. To illustrate, the 
child is moved by hunger to eat a green apple, but in view 
of his concrete memory idea of the previous effects of so 
doing, the impulse is inhibited; or he is moved to play 
with a dog, but in view of his knowledge that this dog 
bites, the impulse is controlled. Or he is tempted, on the 
one hand, to spend the afternoon in playing baseball and, 
on the other, to spend it in making a siphon. On reflec- 
tion, he decides that the pleasures to be derived from the 
first plan have greater worth to him than those to be ob- 
tained from the second; the latter impulse is therefore 
inhibited and the former given free expression in action. 

The direction and control of impulse on this level thus 
involves concrete ideas or idea- wholes of things, needs, 
and values, and it is in making possible the acquisition of 
such concrete knowledge that the intellect serves as the 
instrument of perceptual direction and control. 

6. The Intellect and Direction and Control of Impulse on 
the Conceptual Level. — On the conceptual level of self- 
conscious Hfe, there appears the power of conceptual 
thought. That is, there is the ability to bring a mass of 
experiences into relation to a single interpretative idea, or 
to analyze a number of similar percepts or concrete ideas 
into their essential and non-essential elements and to fuse 
those found essential into a concept or general idea. 



8o PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

Certain products of conceptual thinking are of special 
interest here. First, it is through this mode of thought 
that we arrive at our knowledge of physical and biological 
laws. Second, through it, we come to conceive of our- 
selves and of others as permanent selves, as having per- 
manent needs and interests, and as bound to conform our 
actions to certain well-defined principles of conduct. It 
is also through conceptual thought that we attain a general 
idea of society, of its institutions, customs, and laws. 

From these illustrative products of conceptual thinking, 
it is obvious that the basis of direction on the conceptual 
level is different from that on the perceptual. There is 
a transition from concrete ideas or idea-wholes of par- 
ticular cases or experiences to law, principle, or ideal. 
For example, the Indian, moved by the fighting instinct, 
aims an arrow directly or indirectly according as the threat- 
ening foe is near or far; he holds it in this way because he 
has seen other arrows, when thus aimed, hit the desired 
mark. The trained Japanese artilleryman, moved by the 
same instinct, aimed the cannon at the Russian warships 
in the harbor of Port Arthur not as he had seen others 
do it, but in accord with the principle of the correlation of 
forces. The mother bird, moved by the parental instinct, 
cares for her young as the particular occasion demands; 
on the other hand, the human mother, impelled by the 
same impulse, cares for her child, but the care and atten- 
tion given it are determined not only by the concrete 
idea of its present needs, but in view also of certain prin- 
ciples of hygiene and education. 

In a similar way, concepts, principles, and ideals serve 
on this level as the basis of control. As suggested, the in- 
dividual is able through the power of conceptual thought 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 8i 

to conceive of himself and of others as having fixed needs 
and interests. In possession of these conceptions, he is 
able to subordinate temporal to permanent needs, present 
to future ends; in short, he is able to bring his impulses 
into permanent relations with one another — bring them 
into a system. To illustrate, stimulated by the acquisi- 
tive instinct, one may be tempted to steal, but in view of in- 
sight into his relations to others or in view of certain ideals 
of conduct, the tendency is inhibited. Or one may be moved 
by the impulse of self-preservation to devote his energies 
to the acquisition of wealth only, but because of other per- 
manent interests or ideals of Hfe, the impulse is controlled. 

The direction and control of impulse on the conceptual 
level impHes, then, a knowledge of the laws and principles of 
the physical world, and of the nature and permanent inter- 
ests of the self and of others. It is the intellect that renders 
possible the acquisition of such knowledge, and in doing this 
it serves as the medium of conceptual direction and control. 

7. The Function of the Intellect. — When regarded as 
the instrument of direction and control, the function of 
the intellect is not far to seek. It is to enable Ufe to give 
expression and determination to itself. This implies, on 
the one hand, that through the intellect the individual 
is able to interpret in terms of hfe the meaning and worth 
of the dynamic elements of his nature, and able in the 
light of this interpretation to formulate an end or goal of 
life, such that each primal impulse is assigned therein the 
position best adapted to the fulfillment of its office, and 
so controlled as to contribute most to the richness of 
life. It impHes, on the other hand, that through the in- 
tellect the individual is able to gain such insights into his 
natural and social surroundings, that he is suppHed with 



82 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

the means of giving such expression and direction to his 
impulses as will yield to him the highest self -development. 

8. The Significance of the Intellect for Life. — From this 
point of view, the primary significance of the intellect lies 
in the fact that it renders the individual self-conscious. 
For, though Hfe seeking expression is embodied in its 
dynamic elements or in the primal impulses, self-conscious- 
ness conditions the actualization of Hfe. Deprive the indi- 
vidual of self-consciousness and he remains submerged in 
impulse, buried in the present, and indifferent to the 
future, save as moved by instinct. But endowed with 
self -consciousness, he becomes conscious of worthy ends, 
conscious of the means of attaining these, and able to 
become master of himself within the limits of his physical, 
intellectual, and impulsive nature. 

Again, the significance of the intellect is to be seen in 
the fact that it enables the individual to free himself from 
bondage to natural environment. In the Hfe of animals, 
natural environment is the determining factor. Change in 
physical surroundings necessitates change in the organism 
or in mode of Hfe, and no modification can be made 
in the latter which is not compatible with the former. 
For example, herds of buffaloes roamed over the territory 
west of the Mississippi until toward 1873. With the trans- 
formation of this region from a natural grazing section into 
an agricultural country, the buffalo disappeared because 
he was unable to prevent this change or to adjust himself 
to it. On the other hand, human beings are able, through 
the intehect, to bring about alterations in their physical 
surroundings and to adjust themselves to changes that 
may occur independent of them. Animals are thus at 
the mercy of natural environment, whereas human beings. 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 83 

by virtue of their intelligence, are at least partially freed 
therefrom, and able, within limits, to make their environ- 
ment serve their purposes. 

A further point of significance lies in the fact that the 
intellect frees the individual from bondage to heredity. 
Animals are in almost complete bondage thereto. A 
given animal lives in the way it does because the Hues of 
activity determined by its impulses proved beneficial to 
its ancestors. The Kfe of one animal is in consequence 
much like that of others of the same kind, and this is quite 
like that of their forebears. Indeed, it is only in man that 
we find hereditary predisposition decidedly modified and 
the life of the individual differing radically from that of 
his ancestors, that we find life determined less by heredity 
than by the individual himself. The life the individual 
lives is conditioned, to be sure, by heredity as this mani- 
fests itself in the primal impulses, but through the medium 
of his intellect he is able to bring to bear upon the direction 
and control of these inherited tendencies his own experience 
and the experiences of the race, and is thereby able, within 
limits, to free himself from the domination of heredity. 

9. The Intellect a Servant of the Will. — The intellect, 
however, despite its significance, is the servant of the will. 
Needs arise from the will as embodied in the primal im- 
pulses, and the intellect finds ways of satisfying these; 
from the will spring interests and ends, and the intellect 
provides means of gratification and attainment. As James ^ 
says: "The cognitive faculty, where it appears to exist 
at all, appears but as one element in an organic mental 
whole, and as a minister to higher mental powers — the 
powers of will." 

^ James, The Will to Believe, pp. 140-141. 



84 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

The intellect is not only the servant of the will, but in 
its service it is not at liberty to do things in its own way. 
Perception is, for example, controlled by the will; it does 
this through controlHng attention. Though myriads of 
stimuh from the outer world beat upon the sense organs, 
only those sensations are worked over into percepts to 
which attention is given because of some special interest. 
The will likewise controls memory. An experience of 
importance is grasped as in a vise; while the same event 
stripped of its significance fades from memory with the 
passing of the day. The trains of our ideas are also sub- 
ject to the will, for the immediate needs of life constitute 
the center about which thoughts for the time revolve, 
change the need, and the ideas within the stream of con- 
sciousness are altered. The same is true of reason. Be 
committed to a line of action, and reason at once finds 
grounds for it. Indeed, the will even lays its deter- 
mining hand upon judgment. This is seen in practical 
life, where there are as many answers to a question as 
there are interests at stake; take, for example, ''State 
Rights," ''Slavery," "Free Silver," "Campaign Contri- 
butions." It is to be seen also in science and literature, 
and in philosophy and religion. The intellect is thus 
dominated in its activity from the lowest to its highest 
modes by the will. It must not only do the work of the 
will, but do only what is prescribed by the will. 

lo. The Place of the Intellect in the Life of the Individual. 
— Yet the intellect occupies no mean place in the Hfe of 
the individual, for without its service the larger Hfe as 
manifest in the will would never be actualized. Still, the 
larger Hfe as embodied in the will and the will as the larger 
Hfe-seeking actuaHzation are of more importance than that 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 85 

which serves as a means of this larger life. In consequence, 
the intellect is to be viewed as a secondary aspect of 
the psychical nature, as subordinate to the will, and is to 
be assigned a place of secondary importance in life. 

This is in accord with Paulsen: "The will," he writes, 
*'is the original and, in a certain sense, constant factor in 
soul-Hfe. . . . Intelligence is the secondary and variable 
factor. . . . Everywhere the understanding is an instru- 
ment in the service of the will and surveys the environ- 
ment in order to discover how the will may reach its end 
in the best and easiest manner. . . . The will is the archi- 
tect who determines the form and style of the building; the 
intellect simply executes the plan." ^ 

§ 5. Knowledge 

With the function and place, in the life of the child, of 
both the will and the intellect determined, it remains, if 
we would understand his psychical nature as a whole, to 
consider the fact of knowledge. 

I. The Determination of Knowledge. — One would natu- 
rally infer that the nature of knowledge is determined by 
what is to be known, by things as they are. If this were 
true, all persons would have the same idea of the same 
thing, of the same occurrence or event. But they have 
not. Take as an illustration an act, an accident, an 
event in history, or the different ways in which a simple 
thing like a piece of clay may be regarded. As a matter 
of fact, our knowledge is determined neither by the thing to 
be known nor by the intellect in itself, but it is determined 
more especially by the needs of life seeking expression and 
actualization in the will. To illustrate, the sensations 
1 Paulsen, Introduction to Philosophy, p. 115, 117. 



86 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

presenting themselves to consciousness are without mean- 
ing. The will presses the intellect to give these signifi- 
cance in terms of life. Of these sensations, it is personal 
interest that determines the ones to which attention shall 
be directed. Again, of the sensations thus emphasized, 
it is utility that decides which shall be combined, taken 
as signs of a given object and as representing its simple 
qualities. The further analysis of the concrete ideas thus 
formed, the fixing upon their common and essential ele- 
ments of meanings, and the fusing of the elements found 
common and essential into a concept is likewise done on 
the basis of the relation of the selected elements to the 
needs of Hfe. In truth, "the whole function of conserving, 
of fixing, and holding fast to meanings, has no significance 
apart from the fact that the conceiver is a creature 
with partial purposes and private ends." Destroy the 
will with its biases and preferences, and there remains no 
motive for gaining knowledge. The will, however, exists, 
the practical interests of life make themselves felt, and 
sense experience is interpreted and ordered as it contrib- 
utes to life, and though no such classification exists in the 
external world, one group of what is accepted as knowl- 
edge is dubbed science, another art, another history, ac- 
cording as this or that scheme best suits the purposes of 
the will. 

2. The Function of Knowledge. — In view of its deter- 
mination, the function of knowledge is to serve the pur- 
poses of life. Speaking for the moment as if it existed 
independent of the intellect, knowledge fulfills its func- 
tion through serving as the means of revealing ideals or 
ends of action, — hence of controlling impulses, — and 
through serving as the medium of supplying the means of 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 87 

so expressing and directing impulse in action that cher- 
ished ends may be achieved. 

Before the individual can accept an ideal as his own 
and endeavor to conform his life to it, he must be con- 
scious of the ideal and of its implications. To be con- 
scious of an ideal and of its meaning is to have knowledge 
of the ideal. No small part of our knowledge is of this 
kind. Such knowledge serves its function when in and 
through it the individual comes to appreciate ends of 
action. 

An end, however, implies means, that is, the realization 
of a given ideal involves knowledge which serves as the 
basis for directing action in its attainment. Knowledge 
of an end does not always carry with it insight into means. 
The two may arise in the mind together, but as a rule the 
end is first recognized and the means necessary to its attain- 
ment acquired later. This is true in industry, in intellectual 
work, in art, in life in general. We have, then, a second 
type of knowledge which may be designated knowledge of 
means. Through this type of knowledge, the individual 
comes to know the activities involved in the achievement 
of a given ideal and is supplied with the basis of so guiding 
and directing impulse in its expression in action as to attain 
the given end. 

The line between knowledge of ends and knowledge of 
means cannot be sharply drawn, for that revealing an end 
in one case may, in another, serve as means. Nevertheless, 
this classification has practical value and goes to the heart 
of the problem of curriculum making. 

3. The Function of Knowledge and of the Intellect. — The 
function of knowledge, when thus conceived, is the same 
as the function of the intellect when viewed as the instru- 



88 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

ment of direction and controL The grounds of this sim- 
ilarity are easily discovered. The intellect has a form, 
that is, it manifests itself in different modes of psychical 
activity, as in attention, memory, imagination, and reason, 
and it has a content. Knowledge, being the product of 
intellectual activity, is the intellect on the side of con- 
tent, and the function of knowledge must necessarily be 
the same as the function of the intellect when this is re- 
garded only from the side of form. The function of the 
intellect is therefore not one thing from the point of view 
of form and another thing from the point of view of con- 
tent, for the intellect has, when taken as a whole, but one 
function, namely, to supply insight into ends and insight 
into means, these insights to be employed in the expres- 
sion, direction, and control of impulse. 

4. The Place of Knowledge in Life. — By reason of its 
function, knowledge is of no slight significance. Yet, 
however significant, it is but the means to the expression 
and actuahzation of life. Knowledge is not, therefore, 
an end in itself, nor is knowledge to be acquired for the 
sake of knowledge. For apart from the practical needs 
of life, there are no reasons why we should acquire it. 
Hence we are only interested in knowledge in so far as it 
contributes directly or indirectly to life. 

In view of the fact that knowledge is merely a means 
to an end, it is of secondary importance. Though, from 
its relation to the intellect, — a part of which it is, — 
knowledge is to be regarded as coordinate with the intel- 
lect on the side of form, it is to be considered secondary 
to the will, and to be valued only as it furthers Kfe's pur- 
poses. For we learn that we may act, and we act that we 
may live more abundantly. 



THE PSYCHICAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 89 

§ 6. Educational Inferences 

From the conclusions reached in the study of the psychi- 
cal nature of the child, we are in a position to draw certain 
inferences which will serve both to bring these conclusions 
into relation to education and to make clear the source 
and imphcations of two principles. 

1. TJie Child, an Impulsive, Rational Being. — In view 
of his psychical nature, the child is primarily an impulsive 
and only secondarily a rational being. He is not, there- 
fore, to be regarded as passive, receptive, and static, but 
as essentially active and dynamic, and he is not to be 
viewed as moved to action from without, but as impelled 
to it from within. 

2. Life Determined by the Will. — By reason of the 
character of the will, of its significance and place in life, 
the Hfe attained by the child, on both the side of form and 
of content, is determined by the expression and direction 
given, and by the control exercised over the will or the 
primal impulses. 

3. Life Conditioned by the Intellect. — In view of the 
function of the intellect, the expression and direction 
given the will, and the control exercised, and consequently 
the Hfe attained by the child, are conditioned by the 
ideals of life and by the means of expressing, direct- 
ing, and controlling impulse in action as revealed by the 
intellect. 

4. Will Development and Primary Work of Education. — 
From the character of the constituent elements of the will, 
will development consists in giving higher and higher 
expression and direction and in exercising more and more 
appropriate control over the primal impulses. By reason 



go PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

of the place of the will in life, will development becomes 
the primary work of education. 

5. Intellectual Development and Secondary Work of Edu- 
cation. — In view of the nature of the intellect and of its 
function in life, intellectual development consists in the 
rise of higher and higher modes of mental activity, which 
make accessible to the child higher and more compre- 
hensive ideals of. Hfe and better and more abundant means 
of directing and determining the will in its expression. 
By reason of the place of the intellect in Hfe, intellectual 
development becomes the secondary work of education. 

6. Intellectual Development Conditioned by Will Devel- 
opment. — By reason of the respective functions of the 
intellect and of the will, and by reason of the relation of 
the former to the latter, the development to be given the 
intellect, both on the side of form and of content, is con- 
ditioned by the expression and the direction to be given 
and by the control to be exercised over the will. 

§ 7. Educational Principles 

If these inferences are brought together, we have, 
arising out of the nature of the psychical life of the child, 
these principles: 

1 . The giving of appropriate expression, direction, and de- 
termination to the will — or the development of the will — 
constitutes the primary work of education, the end to which 
every phase of it must contribute and be subordinated. 

2. The development of the intellect is the secondary 
work of education, and the intellect must be so developed 
with respect to both form and content, and only so de- 
veloped, as to give the will the necessary expression and 
the desired direction and determination. 



THE PSYCHIC/VL LIFE OF THE CHILD 91 

Readings 

Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, pp. 51-245. 

Perez, First Three Years of Childhood, pp. 60-98, 263-279, 285-292. 

King, Psychology of Child Development, pp. 172-288. 

James, Talks to Teachers, pp. 39-63, 22-27. 

Ward, Outlines of Sociology, pp. 109-110, 182-185. 

Baldwin, Ethical and Social Interpretations, pp. 247-250, 437. 

Angell, Psychology, pp. 137-140, 215, 246-248. 

Seth, Fourth Year Book of National Herhartian Society, pp. 7-25. 

Thorndike, Educational Psychology, vol. i, pp. 50-169. 

Betts, Social Principles of Education, pp. 133-191. 

Ellwood, Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, pp. 199.277. 

McDougall, An Introduction to Social Psychology, pp. 265-351. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 

§ I. The Problem 

The education of the child not only implies insight into 
the nature of his psychical Hfe, but also presupposes knowl- 
edge of how he develops. Our next task is therefore to 
examine the nature of the process in and through which the 
child develops psychically. 

§ 2. The Factors that Develop 

The first of the factors that develop is the will. Its 
constituent elements, the primal impulses, are, in their 
undeveloped state, without content and find expression 
apart from conscious control and direction. Yet in these 
impulses are hidden the germs of human needs, the well- 
springs of human action, and the possibiHty of rational 
conduct, for in the course of the child's development they 
are given content and subjected to guidance. 

The second factor is the intellect. On the side of its 
form, there are the functions of attention, dissociation, 
association, memory, imagination, perceptual and con- 
ceptual reasoning, and it is these modes of cognitive 
activity that develop. On the side of content, there is 
sense-experience, and this is broadened and deepened, 
and worked over into different kinds of knowledge. 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 93 

§ 3. Periods in Psychical Development 

1. Basis of Determination. — During a greater part of 
the seventeenth century, the child was looked upon as a 
*'Uttle man," that is, he was thought of as being like an 
adult, except that he was smaller in body, and weaker in 
intellect and will. 

If the '' little man" theory were true, the psychical 
development of the child might be regarded as a whole, 
and development viewed as merely an increase in psychi- 
cal power. As a matter of fact, the child is not Hke the 
adult in his mental and will characteristics. The char- 
acter of his intellect and of his will change from time to 
time. The mental powers and the manner of thinking 
distinctive of an early period are different from those 
characteristic of a later one; the impulses seeking expres- 
sion in infancy are not the same as those dominating youth. 
For this reason, the psychical development of the child 
falls into distinct periods, and the basis of fixing upon 
these Hes in the recognition of differences in the will and 
intellectual hfe of the child at different stages in his 
development. 

2. The Periods of Development. — The periods in the 
psychical development of the child have been designated, 
from time out of mind, as the period of infancy, that is, 
from birth to the middle of the second year; the period of 
childhood, to the eighth or ninth year; the period of boy- 
girlhood, to about fourteen for boys and to about thirteen 
for girls; and the period of youth. 

In view of our idea of the primary work of education, 
it is preferable, we believe, to characterize these periods 
in terms of the stages in the development of the will. 



94 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

When this is done, we have the period of the assimilative 
will corresponding to infancy, the period of the percep- 
tual will paralleling childhood, the period of the conceptual 
will extending over boy-girlhood, and the period of the 
conceptual and rational will covering youth and adult life. 

Although the development of the child is to be viewed 
as falKng into these periods, they are not to be regarded as 
distinct each from the other, but to be thought of as mark- 
ing stages of progress in a process which is a continuous 
whole. For there is no break between them, the one gHdes 
imperceptibly into the other, and the development begun 
in the one is continued in the next, although in a more or 
less modified form. Nor are these periods to be viewed 
as unrelated, but as vitally inter-related and each condi- 
tioning the other. For lack of development in an earlier 
period manifests itself in the later, and no amount of after 
training will wholly efface the effects. In consequence, 
the highest development in any later period presupposes 
a normal development in each preceding one. 

3. Will and Mental Elements of Different Periods. — 
Of the four periods in the psychical development of the 
child, we are especially interested in the periods of the 
perceptual and of the conceptual will. 

In the period of the perceptual will, or of childhood, 
the distinctive elements and those with which the teacher 
has to work are, on the side of the will, the instincts of 
fear, anger, pugnacity, selfishness, hunger, cold, acquis- 
itiveness, the constructive instinct, sympathy, the social 
instinct, imitation, play, curiosity, and the tendency to 
talk, also the instinctive appreciation of form, of color, 
and of rhythm, and the instinctive sense of obligation, 
justice, and right. With respect to mental elements, there 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 95 

are present, of the cognitive functions, attention, dissocia- 
tion, association, memory, imagination, and especially the 
power of perceptual reasoning. While on the side of mental 
content, the child possesses a rudimentary knowledge of 
his natural surroundings, which he views, in the main, 
as made up of objects having Httle connection, and known 
more especially with reference to how they can be used 
and what they can do; he also has some little knowledge 
of himself and of his needs. The child, however, in so far 
as he has such ideas, on this level of development thinks 
of himself, as well as of others, as having a body, as being 
able to do certain things, as having certain likes and dis- 
likes, and as having certain needs that demand immediate 
satisfaction. This knowledge of the self, of others, and 
of the world is held by the child in the form of concrete 
ideas, or picture wholes, and it is the expression, control, 
and direction of impulse in the light of and upon the basis 
of such knowledge that is characteristic of the perceptual 
will and of this stage of development. 

In the period of the conceptual will, or of boy-girlhood, 
the elements on the side of the will are, on the one hand, 
those instincts of childhood that continue to impel to 
action, such as pugnacity, selfishness, hunger, cold, imita- 
tion, play, acquisitiveness, and the constructive instinct, 
and, on the other, those instincts more especially distinc- 
tive of boy-girlhood, such as the social and group instinct, 
increased curiosity and growing love of knowledge, a 
broader interest in the beautiful, a deeper sense of right 
and justice, and at least the early stirrings of the religious 
impulse. On the side of the intellect, there become active, 
in this period, the more developed aspects of attention, 
association, dissociation, memory, imagination, and espe- 



96 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

dally conceptual reasoning. The transition from percep- 
tual to conceptual thought brings about a change in the 
child's view of the world as a mere collection of relatively 
separate things, and he comes to regard things as possessing 
essential attributes, as the expression of principles. The 
external world thereby takes on an orderly appearance, 
and type and law are recognized as fundamental and 
controlHng. A similar change occurs in the child's idea of 
himself. He comes to regard himself, and Hkewise others, 
as a permanent, feeHng subject or person, with fixed 
needs, interests, and ends, and with a more or less definite 
mission to accompKsh. This view of the world, of others, 
and of the self is embodied in concepts or general ideas, 
and it is the expression, control, and direction of the 
impulses of boy-girlhood in the light of principles and 
ideals that distinguishes the conceptual will and is char- 
acteristic of the conceptual period of development. 

§4. The Process: The Acquisition of Knowledge 

Whatever else the process may be in and through which 
the child develops psychically, it is one in and through 
which he acquires and makes use of knowledge. An 
appreciation of how the child develops psychically implies, 
in consequence, an examination at this point of at least 
the general characteristics of the process in and through 
which the child gains knowledge. 

I. The Meaning of Experience and of Knowledge. — 
"Experience," writes Morgan,^ "is a matter of impres- 
sions and the directly presentative elements of consciousness. 
For every sense-idea we must have had direct experience 
of the corresponding sense-impression; for every motor- 
1 Morgan, Psychology for Teachers, p. 49- 



PSYCHICAL DE\TLOPJyIENT OF THE CHH^D 97 

idea, a motor-impression; for every idea of relation, a 
basis in practical experience." By experience is meant, 
then, the sensations or the impressions gained directly 
from the excitation of the so-called five senses. Though 
the sensations or impressions secured from the sense 
organs are never wholly without meaning and value except 
in infancy, they do not of themselves yield us knowledge; 
they are merely the materials that may be worked over 
into it. Knowledge is consequently nothing more or less 
than experience, the impressions gained from the senses, 
given meaning and value. The process through which 
experience is acquired and worked over into knowledge 
is called learning. 

2. The Implications of Learning or of the Acquisition oj 
Knowledge. — Though it is the intellect that enables us 
to learn, there is implied in the acquisition of knowledge, 
first, that the child have experience. To illustrate, 
before a child can know what an apple is, he must see, 
touch, smell, and eat one, and he must give meaning and 
value to the sensations or impressions derived therefrom. 
Hence, the condition of learning is the presence in the 
mind or in consciousness of experience. 

The ideal way to get experience is through the expression 
of impulse and through reacting upon external objects. 
To acquire experience through the expression of impulse 
in action and through reaction upon the thing to be learned 
is termed the direct method. 

In the economy of mental life, there are short cuts and 
abridgments of processes, and it is here that one of the 
most important of these occurs. After the child has given 
meaning and value to a number of actual experiences 
and gained thereby some little knowledge, he is able, 



98 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

from description either oral or written, and through the 
use of old knowledge and the exercise of reproductive 
and constructive imagination, to induce a sort of mimic 
experience of the facts, scene, or situation described. 
This mimic or self-induced experience may be worked 
over into knowledge which answers all practical purposes. 

Such experience is supplied by what is called the 
indirect method. This method renders available experi- 
ences other than actual, and since under present con- 
ditions of instruction it is impossible to supply the child 
with all the direct sense-impressions necessary to give 
him the knowledge needed to adjust his life to present 
social conditions, considerable recourse must be had in 
education to this indirect method. Nevertheless, the 
superiority, for learning, of actual over self-induced 
experience and of the direct over the indirect method 
of supplying it is questioned by no one. 

Secondly, not only does learning presuppose the pres- 
ence in the mind of experience, but it implies that this be 
given meaning. To give meaning to experience, the child 
must become conscious of the effects of the given experi- 
ence and of the significance for him of these. To illustrate, 
a lump of substance is placed in the child's mouth, he feels 
a distinct pressure upon his tongue, he feels the substance 
melting, and notes an agreeable sweet sensation. The 
child, we say, has had the experience of tasting sugar. 
But what meaning has this for him? It means the sum 
total of the recognized and associated effects: the sense 
of pressure, of dissolution, the sweet taste, and the signifi- 
cance these have for him. Or, take the six-year-old's idea 
of fire, "Fire is what burns." Its meaning to him is its 
recognized effects and their significance, and it is in the 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHH^D 99 

light of the fact that experience is given meaning, in view 
of the efTects of the experience and the significance of these 
effects, that the definitions of children find their explanation. 

Thirdly, the gaining of knowledge implies that experience 
be given value. To give value to experience, the child 
must become conscious of both its worth as an aid to action 
and as a thing to be enjoyed. For example, a boy eats a 
green persimmon and the value assigned to the experience 
depends upon the estimate put upon his discomfort and 
the recognition of its utility in directing future action; 
he eats a ripe one and the value given depends upon the 
worth assigned to the experience as a basis for guiding ac- 
tion and upon that ascribed to the enjoyment derived from 
it. To give experience value implies, therefore, that the 
child becomes conscious of its worth. 

3. Processes of Learning or of Acquiring Knowledge. — 
There are four processes through which experience is given 
meaning and value, or of learning: the assimilative, the 
perceptual, the conceptual, and the systematic. Each is 
active within limits during a given period of life and on a 
given level of development. The assimilative operates in 
infancy, the perceptual in childhood, the conceptual in 
boy-girlhood, and the conceptual and systematic in youth 
and adult life. Of these processes, the perceptual and the 
conceptual are of particular interest to us. 

The perceptual process of learning has two modes, the 
inductive and the deductive. 

{a) The inductive perceptual process of learning. — 
The following are illustrative of the inductive perceptual 
process of learning: 

Happening to be in the kitchen one day, when a boy 
about nine years of age, my mother said, ''We are going 



ibo PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

to have something new for luncheon — grape-fruit." So 
far as I remember, I had never seen or heard of it. Having 
the proverbial appetite, I was interested in the new food, 
and on observing it was impressed with the similarity 
between grape-fruit and an orange, with respect to form, 
color, and rind, and with respect to the form, structure, 
and arrangement of carpels. Variations between the two 
were noted, but upon reflection all were ignored save those 
of size, form, and color. On smelling it, the odor seemed 
like that of an orange, yet decidedly different; after re- 
peated comparisons I concluded it was something like the 
odor of a sickroom. The taste at first seemed like that 
of a lemon, but I soon found it was different, and after 
recalling the taste of various things and after repeated 
judgments, I decided it was something like that of quinine. 
As both the taste and smell were disagreeable, I concluded 
that I did not Hke grape-fruit. All these sense-impressions 
and the significance and value given them were fused into 
one idea-whole, and I came to think of grape-fruit as a big, 
round, light yellow, sickly smelling, orange-like fruit, with 
a flavor like quinine, and of little worth. 

A sample of valerianate of ammonia was given me, of 
which I was ignorant, except as I recognized a few famihar 
qualities. I observed its appearance and noted that it 
looked like particles of glass broken up into small, irregular, 
flat pieces. I felt of it until I got a tactual image; this 
image was on the whole a new one, yet I found old elements, 
for the feeling was something like that of a hard-smooth- 
cool-liquid-oily substance. I tasted it and got a new taste 
which was sharp and cutting, unlike anything I had ever 
experienced. I smelled of it and got an olfactory image 
of its distasteful, pungent smell; this odor was likewise 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD loi 

an essentially new one. Reflecting upon these impres- 
sions and associating these images, valerianate of ammonia 
came to mean a flat, irregular, glass-like substance, with a 
hard-smooth-cool-liquid-oily texture, with a sharp cutting 
taste, and disagreeable pungent odor, — or its recognized 
effects upon me. Not knowing anything of its medicinal 
use, its value was determined in view of my recognized 
discomfort, and I decided that it was worthless stuff. 

A boy, for example, may know a brick when he sees it, 
and something of its use, but he may be ignorant of how 
it and similar things are made. Take him, however, to 
the clay bank where the clay is being dug, let him follow 
the clay to the pit where it is deposited and prepared for 
moulding, let him watch the moulding and go with the 
newly-made brick to the drying yard, let him follow it to 
where the bricks are being set, let him see the kiln fired 
and the newly-burned bricks, still warm, coming from the 
kiln, let him reflect upon the impressions gained and upon 
the reason for the separate parts of the process, and there 
will arise in his mind, as the result of his observations and 
thought, a concrete idea-whole of how a brick is made. 

In the above illustrations, the experience given meaning 
and value is to be characterized as essentially new. For, 
although among the sensations gained from eating grape- 
fruit there are old impressions obtained from oranges, the 
meaning and value of which are known, there are impres- 
sions never before in the mind, whose meaning and value 
must be determined for the first time, and it is these that 
make the experience an essentially new one. The same 
is true of the experience derived from valerianate of 
ammonia and from visiting the brick plant. 

For a like reason, the concrete ideas acquired are to be 



I02 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

similarly characterized. To be sure, all the parts of the 
concrete idea gained of grape-fruit, of valerianate of 
ammonia, and of how a brick is made are not essentially 
new, — indeed, there are many old factors in them, — 
yet there are in these ideas essentially new elements. 

By reason of the character of the experience given 
meaning and value, and by reason of the character of 
the ideas acquired through it, the inductive perceptual 
process of learning may be defined as that process of 
thought or of reasoning in and through which particular 
meaning and value is given to an essentially new experi- 
ence, and the experience and the meaning and value 
given symbolized to the self by an essentially new concrete 
idea or concrete idea-whole. 

As the source of our essentially new concrete ideas or 
idea-wholes, the inductive perceptual process of learning is 
distinctively constructive and creative. For, taking the 
experience derived from grape-fruit, from valerianate of 
ammonia, or from visiting the brick plant, giving the sepa- 
rate elements of this meaning and value, and forging these 
separate elements into an essentially new concrete idea or 
idea-whole, is as distinctively a construction, a creation, 
as the greatest scientific invention or literary production, 
and the thought movement within, though psychological 
and not logical, is as distinctively one of induction. 

{h) The deductive perceptual process of learning. — 
The deductive perceptual process of learning is illustrated 
by the following: 

S had never had and, so far as known, had never seen 
or played with other than colored round balls. One day 
a pygmy football was given him, without a word. At 
first, he took httle notice of it; soon, however, he began 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 103 

to play with it. Gradually his face lighted up, and he said, 
"Ball, ball." Upon being asked to give it back, he ran 
away. 5 had likewise never had and, so far as known, 
had never seen other than small rag dolls. Upon being 
given — without a word save "This is for baby" — a life- 
like doll, his face lighted up instantaneously, and he shouted 
with glee, "Dolly, dolly, baby dolly!" 

A bottle was placed before a boy seven and a half years 
of age, the object being to have him relate what went on 
in his mind as he tried to find out what was in the bottle. 
The following is a transcript: 

"Upon smelling the substance, the odor seemed familiar 
to him, but suggested nothing. On the second trial, it 
still seemed famiKar, and he found himself naming over 
different odors, comparing with these the one in question 
and trying to identify it, but he failed. On the third trial 
hair ointment was suggested, and on comparing, he felt 
certain that the odor was that of hair-oil. • With the rise 
of this sense of certainty, he could feel, as it were, 
the meaning and value attached thereto going over to 
the given substance." The material in question was the 
essence of bergamot used extensively in hair ointments. 

From the above illustrations, it will be seen that mean- 
ing is given to experience in the deductive perceptual 
process of learning through recognizing the similarity 
between the experience in question and a past experience, 
and through a transfer — upon the basis of recognized 
similarity — of the particular meaning of the experience 
similar to the one in question. Likewise with the assign- 
ment of value. Life proceeds upon the principle — to 
be sure, acted upon at first unconsciously — that simi- 
larity of meaning is indicative of similarity of value. 



I04 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

Consequently, when upon the ground of Kkeness the 
concrete meaning of a past experience is transferred, its 
particular value is also transferred, and the experience in 
question is ascribed a value similar to that of a given 
past experience. 

The experience acquired and worked up into knowledge 
through this process of learning is to be characterized as 
new, though there are no essentially new elements in it, 
no elements never before given meaning and value. The 
combination of elements is, however, new, and this makes 
the experience as a whole, though similar to a previous 
experience, different from any other. 

The concrete ideas or idea-wholes gained through this 
process of learning may also be characterized as new. For 
the child's concrete idea of the Hfe-like doll is, for example, 
in no sense an essentially new mental product, though it 
is similar to his idea of his rag doll. Still, the two ideas 
lie apart in his mind and are carriers of somewhat different 
meanings and values. A new concrete idea or idea- whole 
is, then, one that is similar to a concrete idea previously 
acquired, yet is somewhat different and is held in the 
mind as a separate picture- whole. 

From the character of the experience given meaning 
and value, and from the character of the ideas acquired 
through it, the deductive perceptual process of learning 
may be defined as that process of thought or of reasoning 
through which particular meaning and value is given to 
a new experience and the experience and the meaning 
and value given symbolized to the self by a new concrete 
idea or idea- whole. 

(c) The relation between processes of perceptual learn- 
ing. — The basis of a process of deductive perceptual 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 105 

learning is, as we have seen, old experience having particular 
meaning and value, or old concrete ideas. These old ideas 
are acquired as a rule through inductive perceptual learning. 
The inductive perceptual process of learning is therefore the 
prior process and conditions the wider operations of the 
deductive. 

On the other hand, an essentially new experience, 
acquired and worked over into knowledge through the 
inductive perceptual process of learning, includes within it 
old elements. So far as the essentially new experience 
includes old elements and these are not greatly modified 
by the new combination, it is given meaning and value 
through a process of deductive perceptual learning, as this 
is the more ready and economical method. Inductive 
perceptual learning thus implies at least the implicit 
operations of the deductive, and though the operations of 
the former are not fundamentally conditioned by the latter, 
they are greatly facilitated thereby. 

The processes of perceptual learning are therefore 
related and each conditions the workings of the other. 

(d) The products and results of the perceptual process 
of learning. — The product, on the side of knowledge, 
of the perceptual process of learning is, as suggested, a 
concrete idea or concrete idea-whole. Through this pro- 
cess the child gains, on the one hand, free ideas of given im- 
pulses, of given needs, and of particular ways and means 
of expressing his impulses and of satisfying his wants, and, 
on the other, he gains through it free ideas of objects and 
things, and of the conditions environing his life. 

The concrete ideas thus acquired are, however, not static; 
they undergo change and development. These are built 
up out of experience, and the elements thereof which may 



io6 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

be seized upon and worked over into knowledge are deter- 
mined by practical needs. The child's needs are, however, 
subject to variation, and his reactions to the same object 
or situation therefore vary from time to time, so that there 
is a consequent change in his notion of a given object. His 
idea of a knife differs at different times, and on the whole is 
never like the manufacturer's; his idea of playing ball is 
modified from time to time, and is never quite like that of 
the professional ball player; his idea of a horse is always 
far from that of the professional breeder. Since a concrete 
idea is a living, developing thing, and not something that 
can be stamped upon the child's mind in its final form once 
for all, the question for the teacher is : What concrete idea- 
whole of a particular need, object, or situation can and 
should be given to the child at a given time? 

The results, on the side of action, of the perceptual pro- 
cess of learning are, that the child is able, in the light of the 
essentially new concrete ideas acquired through the induc- 
tive mode, to give expression in action to his impulses in 
essentially new ways and to adjust himself to essentially 
new conditions, and is also able, upon the basis of the new 
concrete ideas gained through the deductive mode, to 
direct his activities with ease and economy in the presence 
of old and similar situations. 

4. The Conceptual Process of Learning. — With the in- 
creasing complexity of life for the child and with the rising 
powers of the intellect, the perceptual process of learning 
is gradually supplanted by the conceptual. 

There are two modes of conceptual learning, the induc- 
tive and the deductive. 

{a) The inductive conceptual process of learning. — As 
an illustration of the inductive conceptual process of learn- 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 107 

ing, a child, say, becomes acquainted with different kinds of 
knives — a pocket knife, a table knife, a carving knife, etc. 
He observes that they are of various sizes and shapes, made 
of different materials, and used in different ways. Hearing 
such different things called knives, confusion arises and the 
question comes: What is a knife? The recall of the con- 
crete ideas of the knives he knows yields no answer. If 
actuated by sufficient motive, these concrete ideas are sep- 
arated into their elements, the common and essential ones 
noted, and the elements found common and essential fused 
into a general notion; and thereafter a knife means to the 
child a thing of convenient form and size, having a handle 
and blade, and used for cutting. Value is assigned to this 
insight in view of the mental satisfaction it affords and in 
the light of its utiUty. 

Or a child has learned through the inductive perceptual 
process how to add $12 and $14. This knowledge may be 
used as a guide in adding similar numbers, such as 12 cents 
and 16 cents, 17 horses and 19 horses. There will come a 
time, however, when the child is confronted with the ques- 
tion: How can I find the sum of any given numbers? The 
mere calling to mind of how he added other problems fails 
to supply the desired information, for the general elements 
in the concrete problems and in their solution are not ap- 
parent. These elements can be brought to view only 
through separating given problems and the operations in 
their solution into their elements, through fixing upon the 
common and essential ones, and through bringing these 
elements into a general idea. 

Or a child has gained at school a concrete idea-whole of 
Niagara Falls. Through railroad advertisements or con- 
versation at home, this question arises: Why is Niagara so 



io8 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

famous? The mere recall of his concrete idea of Niagara 
will fail to supply the answer. To attain this, he must re- 
flect upon the given parts of Niagara, consider what it is 
with and what it would be without this and that one, pass 
judgment upon what parts are distinctive, and see that 
Niagara is famous because of these particular features. 

The experience given meaning and value through the 
inductive conceptual process of learning is to be character- 
ized as essentially new. This does not mean that the same 
sense-impressions have never before been in the mind, or 
that their concrete meaning and value have never before 
been appreciated. For the child in the above illustrations 
had had the experience and was in possession of concrete 
ideas of knives, of particular problems and their solution, 
had a concrete idea-whole of Niagara, long before the incep- 
tion of the given process of inductive conceptual thought. 
Nor does it imply that there are no elements in the experi- 
ence or experiences in question, the general meaning and 
value of which are known. To characterize an experience 
or experiences as essentially new merely means that there 
are elements included, the general meaning and value of 
which must be determined for the first time and determined 
more or less independently of any previously acquired gen- 
eral ideas. 

The general ideas gained through the inductive concep- 
tual process of learning are also to be characterized as 
essentially new. The child, for example, in the above 
illustrations came for the first time to appreciate what a 
knife is, how to solve any problem in addition, what features 
of Niagara are distinctive, and nowhere in his fund of 
knowledge has he general ideas essentially similar. All 
parts of an essentially new general idea are, of course, not 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 109 

new. Such ideas include old elements of general meaning 
and value, yet in an essentially new general idea there are 
elements of general meaning and value appreciated for the 
first time, which make the general idea gained essentially 
different from any previously acquired. 

The essentially new general ideas obtained through the 
inductive conceptual process of learning fall into two 
classes — class concepts and individual concepts. A class 
concept is an idea of the common and essential qualities 
or characteristics belonging to a class — for example, the 
abstract idea, horse, river, water-fall, or the idea of a prin- 
ciple, rule, or definition, such as the principle of the right 
lever, the rule for the multiplication of a fraction by a frac- 
tion, or the definition of a noun. Many of the larger 
truths of arithmetic, grammar, elementary school science, 
as well as certain of those of history, geography, and Ktera- 
ture, are notions of this kind and come to the child as 
essentially new class concepts. On the other hand, an 
individual concept is a concrete idea of a given particular 
suffused with the appreciation that certain qualities are 
distinctive or characteristic — for example, a concrete idea 
and appreciation of the distinctive qualities or character- 
istics of Niagara Falls, of Chicago, of the winter at Valley 
Forge, of the Missouri Compromise, The Village Black- 
smith, or The Angelus. The larger and more vital truths of 
geography, history, literature, and art are of this type. 

From this point of view, the inductive conceptual process 
of learning may be defined as that process of thought or of 
reasoning in and through which general meaning and value 
are given to an essentially new experience or group of 
experiences, and the meaning and value given symbolized 
to the self by an individual or essentially new class concept. 



no PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

(b) The deductive conceptual process of learning. — 
The following are examples of the deductive conceptual 
process of learning: 

A child is confronted with the question: What is this? 
He may form a relatively clear concrete idea of the object 
before him, but its meaning and value as thus symboKzed 
are in nowise satisfactory; he is in doubt where to put it, 
how 'to classify it. He notes its long, handle-like part, the 
sharp and hook-like blade. These features- suggest the 
general idea of a knife, and he decides it is a knife. He is 
still perplexed, however, as he does not know what kind of 
a knife it is. With the characteristics of the given object 
in mind, he begins to search among his general ideas of 
different kinds of knives. These are recalled one after 
another and dismissed. Tardily there comes forth his 
concept of a pruning knife, formed some five or six years 
before, but never in the meantime brought into service. 
With the recall of this concept, there is sensed a feeling of 
familiarity with respect to the object in question. Reflec- 
tion confirms this feeling and the child decides that the 
object before him is a pruning knife. All the general 
meaning and value acquired by such knives goes over to 
the given one, and he feels that he knows the object and be- 
comes conscious of a given attitude toward it. 

Or, the question before the prospective settler may be: 
Is eastern North Dakota adapted to general farming? 
Three conditions are known to him as essential — good 
soil, long, warm summers, and an abundance of rain. With 
his conception of good soil in mind, he examines the soil in 
question and pronounces it excellent; he studies the govern- 
ment and state reports with reference to temperature, and 
finds the heat conditions good; he turns to the same reports 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD iii 

with regard to moisture, and noting that it is from ten to 
twenty inches per annum, decides that the rainfall is suffi- 
cient. Drawing together the insights thus gained, he con- 
cludes that eastern North Dakota is adapted to general 
agriculture, and places his personal estimate upon this 
section. 

Or, a boy who has gained in formal grammar a general 
idea of the noun and its uses, also a conception of the clause, 
comes upon a number of illustrations of the substantive 
clause and the question arises : What is a substantive clause 
and what are its uses? If he notes carefully each of the given 
clauses and the particular way in which each is employed, 
then recalls his idea of the noun and its uses, and finally 
compares the given clauses and the way they are employed 
with what he knows of the noun, he will come to the con- 
clusion that the substantive clause is one which takes the 
place of and is used in the sentence as a noun. 

In the first two illustrations, it will be observed that the 
general meaning and value given the particular in ques- 
tion was assigned in the light of a previously acquired gen- 
eral idea or ideas. It will also be observed that, in the 
third illustration, the general idea gained was acquired 
through the aid of conceptions previously obtained. It is 
this giving of general meaning and value to a particular 
experience through relating it to or interpreting it in the 
light of a class concept, or the giving of general meaning 
and value to a group of experiences through the aid of 
previously acquired general ideas, that is distinctive of the 
deductive conceptual process of learning. 

The experience given general meaning and value through 
this process of learning may be designated as new. There 
are in the experiences thus worked over into knowledge no 



112 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

new elements in the sense that the general meaning and 
value of these have never before been appreciated, but 
the elements are combined in a new way and it is this 
that makes the experience a new one. The prospective 
settler in examining the soil and climatic conditions of 
eastern North Dakota discovers no new elements, but he 
does find old ones under new conditions. Likewise with 
the boy trying to determine the meaning and function of 
the substantive clause, his knowledge of the noun and its 
uses is found in a new form. 

The general ideas acquired maybe similarly characterized. 
In case the meaning and value are ascribed to a particular 
experience, a new concept is gained, but not an essentially 
new one; general meaning and value have merely been 
given to a particular — to eastern North Dakota, for ex- 
ample; or a particular pruning knife has been suffused 
with general significance and put in its class. The same 
is true when meaning and value are given to a group of 
particulars, such as a number of type substantive clauses. 
To be sure, in the illustration given the child gains a gen- 
eral idea of the substantive clause. Yet in this conception 
there are no essentially new elements of general meaning 
and value — all are practically included in his idea of a 
noun. These elements are, however, found in a new dress 
and in a somewhat different combination, and it is this 
that makes the concept a new one. Notwithstanding a 
new concept contains within it no essentially new general 
elements of significance, it lies apart in the mind, and 
though the child may appreciate its similarity and relation 
to other concepts, it is never confused with them. 

The new general ideas acquired in and through the 
deductive conceptual process of learning are of two kinds — 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 113 

class concepts, and particular concepts. The class con- 
cepts acquired through this mode of learning are to be 
defined in the same way as those gained through the corre- 
sponding inductive process. The particular concept, how- 
ever, differs from the individual concept, as it is a concrete 
idea suffused with certain general elements of meaning and 
value which connect the particular in question with a 
given principle or class. The boy, for example, not only 
has, as the result of his thought, a concrete idea of the 
pruning knife, but he also recognizes therein certain ele- 
ments of general meaning and value belonging to all pruning 
knives. The prospective settler, as the result of his investi- 
gation, not only has a concrete idea of eastern North 
Dakota, but also sees therein a particular expression of the 
general conditions of agriculture. A considerable portion 
of the larger truths of the different school subjects are 
particular or new class concepts and come to the child in 
this form. 

From the character of the experience given meaning and 
value, and from the character of the ideas acquired through 
it, the deductive conceptual process of learning may be 
defined as that process of thought or of reasoning in and 
through which general meaning and value are given to a 
new experience or to a group of new experiences, and the 
general meaning and value given symbolized to the self 
by a particular or new class concept. 

{c) Relation between processes of conceptual learning. 
— New experience is given general meaning and value, 
as we have seen, in the light of previously acquired general 
ideas. The general ideas thus employed are as a rule 
gained through the inductive conceptual process of learn- 
ing. This suggests the fact that the deductive conceptual 



114 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

process is conditioned in its workings by the inductive, as 
the latter supplies the basis of the operations of the former. 

An essentially new experience, given general meaning 
and value through the inductive conceptual process of 
learning, contains within it, as we have seen, old elements. 
In so far as this is true, such an experience is given general 
significance through the corresponding deductive process, 
as this is the more ready and economical method. There 
are involved, therefore, in the inductive conceptual pro- 
cess of learning — to say the least — the implicit opera- 
tions of the deductive, and though the inductive process 
is not essentially dependent upon the deductive, it is 
greatly facilitated thereby. 

The processes of conceptual learning are therefore to be 
viewed as related, and each is to be regarded as conditioning 
the operations of the others. 

(d) The products and results of the conceptual process 
of learning. — On the side of knowledge, the child gains, 
through the conceptual process of learning, an idea of him- 
self and of others as having permanent tendencies, interests, 
and needs; he gains through it general ideas of industry 
and of industrial processes, general ideas of the family, of 
the state, of his rights and duties, also general ideas of 
classes of objects, of particular things and situations, and 
of the laws and principles controlling the physical world. 
In short, he gains, through this process of learning, gen- 
eral ideas of himself, of the social world, and of nature. 

The concepts acquired are, however, not static or change- 
less, embodying once for all the elements of the general 
significance of a given experience or of a group. They 
are gradual acquisitions, undergoing development and 
decay according as there is change in the child's interests 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 115 

and purposes. For the general idea or concept, as such, is 
not primarily dependent upon experience, but upon those 
elements of experience selected as of importance under the 
particular conditions of life and assigned general meaning 
and value. A given general idea or concept may therefore 
be one thing today and another tomorrow. Nor is the 
concept expressive of the general significance of an experi- 
ence or of a group necessarily the same for the child as for 
the adult; indeed, it may be and doubtless is quite different, 
for what seems of importance to the one is not always so 
for the other. The question for the teacher, therefore, 
is this: What is the content of the general ideas of the 
child at each stage of his development and what content 
can and should be given them? 

On the side of action, the conceptual process of learning 
results not only in enabling the child — upon the basis of 
the general ideas of the purposes and ends of life, and of 
the conceptions of the natural world acquired — to con- 
trol and direct his actions in essentially new and uniform 
ways, but also results in enabhng him — in the Hght of the 
conceptions attained more particularly through the de- 
ductive mode — to adjust himself with ease and security 
to particular situations and conditions. In short, the 
conceptual process of learning enables the child to direct 
his actions in the light of laws, principles, and ideals. 

5 . The Processes of Learning and Psychical Development. 
— Such, in general, are the perceptual and the conceptual 
processes in and through which the child acquires knowl- 
edge. These processes are an essential part of the larger 
one in and through which the child develops psychically. 
For it is the capacity to learn and the acquisition and use 
of knowledge that condition psychical development. 



ii6 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

§ 5. The Process: The Acquisition and Use of 
Ejnowledge and Will Development 

Further light will be thrown upon the process in and 
through which the child develops psychically, if the rela- 
tion between the acquisition and use of knowledge and 
the development of the will is examined. 

Will development implies the giving of content to and the 
control and direction of impulse. 

I. The Giving of Content to Impulse. — The giving of 
content to impulse presupposes, first, the presence in the 
mind of the child of the experience to be derived from the 
impellings of the impulse and from its expression in action. 
To illustrate, the condition of giving content to the play 
instinct is that the child feel the instinctive inclination to 
play and have the experiences resulting from playing dif- 
ferent games. In case of the acquisitive instinct, the child 
must have the sensation of being impelled to collect and 
the sense-impressions arising from making and possessing 
given collections. If it is the constructive instinct, the 
child must feel its impelHngs, and have the experiences 
derived from reacting upon given things, from the activities 
involved in the construction of given objects, and from the 
use and enjoyment of the things made. 

Second, in giving content to impulse there is impKed, 
on the one hand, that meaning be given the experiences 
derived from its impellings and from its expression in 
action, and that these experiences and their meaning be 
associated with the impulse. For example, by ascribing 
meaning to the experiences derived from the instinct to 
play and its gratification, one comes to know its impelhngs, 
to know the actions involved and the pleasure to be had 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 117 

from a particular expression in playing a given game; and 
it is the reference of this knowledge to the play instinct that 
gives it content. Similarly, through ascribing meaning to 
the experiences derived from the constructive instinct, 
one comes to know its impellings, learns what activities 
are involved in a particular expression, learns how to 
construct and use given things, and what satisfaction is to 
be had from them; in short, the constructive instinct is 
given content to the extent to which it is bound up with 
such knowledge. Likewise, by giving meaning to the 
experiences arising from the acquisitive instinct and its 
expression, knowledge is gained of the instinct, of what 
can be acquired, of the activities involved, and of the 
pleasure to be derived from a particular possession; and to 
associate the knowledge thus acquired with the construc- 
tive instinct is to give it content; so with all impulses. 

Third, there is implied, on the other hand, that value 
be ascribed to the experiences arising from the impellings of 
the impulse and from its expression in action, and that the 
value assigned be associated with the impulse. To illus- 
trate, by giving value to the experiences had from the 
acquisitive instinct and its satisfaction, one gains knowl- 
edge of the worth of these experiences; and to the extent 
to which this instinct is bound up with the ideas of the 
worth of the experiences derived from it, to that extent 
it has content. In Hke manner, the constructive instinct 
acquires content through relating to it the ideas of worth 
gained from giving value to the experience derived from the 
instinct and its expression. The value assigned an impulse 
thus depends upon the worth ascribed to the experiences 
arising from the impulse and its issuance in action. 

Apart from its expression, the giving of content to impulse 



ii8 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

consists, then, in assigning meaning and value to the ex- 
periences arising from its issuance in action and in referring 
the meaning and value ascribed to the impulse. To give 
meaning and value to experience is, as we have seen, to 
acquire knowledge. An impulse is therefore given content 
through gaining knowledge of it, of the actions and of the 
experiences to which it leads, and of the worth of the ex- 
perience derived from its impelKngs and issuance in action, 
and is consequently conditioned by the processes in and 
through which knowledge is acquired. In other words, it 
is through the learning processes that impulse is given 
content. 

2. The Control and Direction of Impulse. — To control 
an impulse is to be able to inhibit or confirm its expression, 
and to direct an impulse is to guide its issuance in action. 

An impulse is confirmed or inhibited through the child 
identifying or not identifying himself with the impulse and 
thereby reenforcing or not reenforcing it with the other 
forces of his nature. To illustrate, in early Hfe there is 
no conscious control of impulse, the strongest one of the 
moment inhibits all others and issues in action. Take for 
example hunger. The infant eats providing there is oppor- 
tunity whenever it is hungry. With the giving of content 
to hunger this is not so. By virtue of its content, there 
has been absorbed into the impulse a variety of ideas of 
its meaning and value. Thereafter, upon the entrance of 
the impulse into consciousness, these ideas are revived and 
especially ideas of its value, and they tend to check its 
immediate expression. If, in view of the revived ideas of 
value, the things to eat and the surroundings at hand seem 
appropriate to the satisfaction of hunger in a way to be of 
worth, he identifies himself with the thought of satisfying 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 119 

his hunger with the things and under the surroundings in 
question. The idea of gratifying his hunger with the means 
available symbolizes to the child the value of a given 
expression of the hunger instinct, and is dynamic, and 
when the idea is reenforced by a sense of harmony with the 
child's habits, tastes, and interests, it becomes doubly so. 
The thought of satisfying hunger in the given way thus 
reenforced reacts upon the impulse, and the impulse being 
thus augmented in its impellings, passes over into action. 
If, however, the things to eat and the surroundings at 
hand do not seem suited to the satisfaction of hunger in a 
desirable manner, the child does not identify himself with 
the idea of gratifying it in the given way, and the impulse 
is inhibited. 

To illustrate further: Though in later childhood various 
impulses of different natural strength may at the same 
time excite to action — for example, that of self-preserva- 
tion and the moral-rehgious impulse — the expression of 
these under the given conditions may have different values. 
That of the weakest naturally may have the greatest worth, 
as the idea of the self implied in its issuance in action may 
harmonize best with the child's ideals, and consequently 
calls forth the most reenforcing tendencies. As a result, 
the child identifies himself with the naturally weaker 
impulse, the forces of his Hfe as then organized drain off 
into it, and being thus augmented, it passes over into action 
and inhibits all other impulses. 

It is well to remark, in this connection, that the medium 
of confirmation or inhibition is always an idea — an idea 
symboHzing the value of the probable experience to be 
derived from the expression of an impulse in a given way. 
Such ideas are centers of control. 



120 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

On the other hand, the basis of the direction of impulse 
is knowledge of what is involved in its issuance in action. 
Through the giving of content to an impulse, say the artistic, 
the child comes to know, as we have seen, the activities 
involved in different expressions, to know the means to 
be utilized, and to know what is produced. Later, when the 
child desires to give a particular expression to this impulse, 
or to create a given thing of art, he is able, through the 
control of his actions on the basis of knowledge previously- 
acquired, so to direct the impulse in action that the desired 
thing is produced. Similarly with all impulses; they are 
directed in their expression on the basis of knowledge of 
the activities and of the means involved therein. 

Since impulse is controlled in view of ideas of the value 
of the experience to be derived, and is directed in its is- 
suance in action, in view of knowledge of the activities 
and means involved in a given expression, the control 
and direction of impulse presuppose a certain content. An 
impulse acquires content, as we have seen, through mean- 
ing and value being ascribed to the experience arising from 
its issuance in action and through the reference of the 
meaning and the value given to the impulse. Meaning 
and value are ascribed to experience, as we have seen, in 
and through the learning processes. The control and direc- 
tion of impulse impHes, therefore, no other processes than 
those involved in the child learning or acquiring knowledge. 

3. The Process of Will Development. — Will development 
not only impKes the control and direction of impulse, 
but also consists in exercising progressively better control 
and direction. 

The control and direction of impulse rests, as we have 
seen, upon its content; the giving of content rests, in turn, 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 121 

upon the learning processes. All that is implied in will 
development, other than the expression of impulse and the 
use of knowledge in better and better control and direction, 
is therefore supplied by the learning processes. 

The process in and through which the will develops 
may consequently be characterized as one in which its 
elements — the primal impulses and related instincts — 
are given expression in action, the resulting experiences 
ascribed meaning and value, or worked over into knowledge 
through the learning processes, and the knowledge thus 
acquired used in exercising progressively better control 
and direction over the future expression of its elements. 
To illustrate, a boy moved by the constructive instinct 
plays with materials and tools, but constructs nothing of 
worth to himself or to others. From these experiences, 
however, he learns about different woods and how they can 
be used, about different tools and how to handle them. 
With the return of the impulse, instead of following the 
incHnation merely to play, he consciously uses the knowl- 
edge gained of woods and tools in so directing his activities 
as to make a towel rack. Or, the youth stirred by sympathy 
and the rehgious impulse gives indiscriminately of his time 
and money. From experience he learns that, in cases, 
instead of doing the recipient good, he really does him harm. 
He uses this knowledge in the future to exercise better 
control over his charitable impulses and in directing their 
expression to the advantage of the recipient. 

4. The Law of Will Development. — In view of the nature 
of the process through which the will develops, the develop- 
ment of a particular will is conditioned by the expression 
given it, by the character of the resulting experience, by 
the meaning and value ascribed this, and by the use made 



122 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

of the knowledge thus gained in controlling and directing 
the future expression of its elements. 

5. Stages of Will Development. — The stages in the 
development of the will were suggested in our study of 
the periods in child development; these are the stages of 
the assimilative, the perceptual, the conceptual, and the 
systematic will. In view of the relation existing between 
the processes of learning and of will development, the 
grounds of this division are not far to seek. Each separate 
process of learning enables the child to gain a distinct type 
of knowledge and to give a distinct type of content to his 
impulses; their control and direction upon the basis of this 
type of knowledge gives rise to a distinct stage in the 
development of the will. We have, in consequence, cor- 
responding to the assimilative process of learning and the 
products thereof, the assimilative stage in will develop- 
ment, corresponding to the perceptual process, the percep- 
tual, and so on to the highest stage of will development 
— the systematic. The problem of the teacher, from this 
point of view, is to lead the child from the lowest process 
of learning — the assimilative — to the highest — the sys- 
tematic — and thereby provide for leading him from the 
lowest to the highest stage of will development, that is, 
from the stage of the assimilative to that of the syste- 
matic will. 

6. Will Development and Character Development. — Char- 
acter is life crystallized in well-defined habits, in fixed lines 
of conduct. What one's habits are, what one's conduct 
is depends, however, upon the control and direction he 
chooses to exercise over his impulses or over his will. Char- 
acter is therefore conditioned by the expression and direc- 
tion given to impulse, or is conditioned by the development 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 123 

given the wilL Will development is consequently character 
development, and to form the will is to mould character. 

§6. The Process: The Acquisition of Knowledge 
AND THE Development of the Intellect 

Still further light will be thrown upon the process in and 
through which the child develops psychically, if the relation 
of the acquisition of knowledge and the development of 
the intellect is considered. The intellect develops on the 
side of form or of cognitive functions, that is, with respect 
to the power of attention, memory, imagination, reason- 
ing, and on the side of content or knowledge. 

I. The Development of Mental Content or Knowledge. — 
Knowledge is, as we have seen, experience that has been 
given meaning and value, and the ascribed meaning and 
value symbolized to the self by concrete or general ideas. 
It develops in two directions, — in breadth, and in depth 
and organization, — that is, it develops with respect to 
the number of things about which we have knowledge, and 
it develops with respect to the depth of our insight into 
them and in the way in which these insights are related. 

Knowledge develops with respect to breadth through 
the child giving meaning and value to a wider and wider 
range of experience. To illustrate, the child's knowledge 
is growing in breadth when he learns of what is in the home, 
then of what is in the neighborhood, then of what is in the 
locality or community, and so on out into the larger world. 

The child learns, as was suggested, through four sepa- 
rate processes. Each supplies him with a distinct type of 
insight and a particular basis of organizing his knowledge. 
To confine our illustrations to the processes studied, through 
the perceptual, the child acquires concrete ideas or concrete 



124 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

idea-wholes. He may gain a concrete idea of an apple, 
of a peach, or of an orange, and each of these ideas may 
serve as the basis for classifying and relating a goodly num- 
ber of concrete ideas of different apples, peaches, or oranges, 
but forms no basis for bringing together his knowledge of 
several kinds of fruits. 

The insight afforded the child through the conceptual 
process of learning is of a different type. Through this 
process, he gains insight into the common and essential 
elements in the meaning and value of a class, or into the 
distinctive and characteristic elements in the meaning and 
value of a particular. The child's knowledge is thus deep- 
ened as he gains ideas of general meaning and value. 
Furthermore, these ideas of general meaning and value 
serve as the basis for a higher organization of his knowledge. 
The child is able, for example, upon the basis of his con- 
ception of fruit to associate and relate all that he may have 
learned about particular apples, peaches, or oranges; he 
is able to see these different kinds of fruit in relation to one 
central, organizing idea. Knowledge develops with respect 
to depth and organization, therefore, according as experi- 
ence is given meaning and value through higher and higher 
processes of learning. 

The process in and through which the intellect develops 
on the side of content may then be characterized as one 
in which experience of a wider and wider range is given 
meaning and value and this given meaning and value 
through higher and higher processes of learning. 

2. The Development of the Cognitive Functions. — "The 
simple fact is," writes Dewey,^ ''there is no isolated faculty 
of observation, or memory, or reasoning any more than 

1 Dewey, Ethical Principles Ufiderlying Education, p. 13. 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 125 

there is an original faculty of blacksmithing, carpentering, 
or steam engineering. These faculties (that is, black- 
smithing, etc.) simply mean that particular impulses and 
habits have been coordinated and formed to accompHsh 
certain definite kinds of work. Precisely the same thing 
holds of the so-called mental faculties. They are not 
powers in themselves, but are such only with reference to 
the ends to which they are put, the services which they 
have to perform." In short, cognitive functions are not 
"mental powers or faculties" existing from infancy, but 
particular uses of the intellect developed with reference 
to the needs of life. 

In life under given conditions, there is need of knowledge. 
The acquisition of this necessitates the exercise of the intel- 
lect in the learning processes in given ways, and it is the 
continued use of the intellect in given ways that causes the 
rise and development of different cognitive functions. To 
illustrate, attention develops through exercise in observa- 
tion ; the scientist acquires a given type of attention through 
observation of a given kind; the sailor by attending to a 
different kind of thing acquires another type. The imagina- 
tion develops by use in representing things real and ideal; 
the artist develops one type through picturing things of a 
given character, the mathematician another. 

The process in and through which the intellect develops 
on the side of cognitive functions may therefore be charac- 
terized as one in which it is employed in different ways in 
the learning processes in the acquisition of the knowledge 
needed in the Hving of life to the full under given conditions. 

3 . Relation between Development of Content a nd of Cognitive 
Functions. — The exercise of the intellect in giving meaning 
and value to experience results, as we have seen, in knowl- 



126 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

edge and in its development, and the use of the intellect 
therein causes the rise and development of cognitive 
functions. Consequently, to think of the development of 
mental content apart from that of cognitive functions is to 
lose sight of the mental activity involved in the rise and 
development of knowledge, and to think of the development 
of cognitive functions ' without regard to a corresponding 
development of content is to ignore the product of mental 
action. For there is no knowledge apart from the activity 
of the mental functions, and vice versa; each without the 
other is meaningless. The development of the one is there- 
fore impHed in that of the other. 

The significance of this relationship only becomes 
apparent, however, upon further examination. The ac- 
tivity of the cognitive functions in giving meaning and 
value to a particular type of experience yields a given type 
of knowledge — knowledge of arithmetic, history, geog- 
raphy, or drawing. But can we say, on the other hand, 
that the acquisition of a given kind of knowledge — like 
arithmetic, history, or geography — results in the rise and 
development of given mental functions? 

If we accept the theory that all activity of the intellect 
is conditioned by the brain, that development of the intel- 
lect on the physiological side is but the fixing of brain-cells 
to react in a given way, and that brain-cells are subject to 
the law of habit, — if we accept these theories, we are 
forced to conclude that the giving of meaning and value 
to a particular type of experience, or the acquisition of a 
given kind of knowledge — like arithmetic, or history — 
results, on the side of the brain, in the fixing of certain 
cells to react in a particular way, or results in the rise and 
development of given cognitive functions. 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 127 

The import of the relationship between the development 
of the form and content of the intellect is, then, that the 
development of the one is reciprocally conditioned and 
determined by that of the other. In consequence, the 
development of given cognitive functions implies the giving 
of meaning and value to particular types of experience, 
and the acquisition of particular kinds of knowledge fosters 
the rise and development of given cognitive functions. 
The cognitive functions developed will therefore vary with 
the character of the experience worked over into knowledge. 

4. Definition of Cognitive Function. — This reciprocal 
and parallel development of the form and content of the 
intellect makes necessary a correcting and broadening of the 
common idea of a mental faculty or cognitive function. 
Attention, memory, and imagination are, to be sure, ways 
in which the intellect works. We do not, however, have 
attention, memory, or imagination as general mental 
powers: we have attentions, memories, imaginations, 
corresponding to given types of mental content. That is, 
there is no general function of attention through which 
all things are observed, but innumerable functions of 
attention each developed through attending to a particular 
kind of experience. We do not have a general power of 
memory through which all things are remembered, but 
a variety of these, each developed with reference to remem- 
bering given things. Nor do we have a single power of 
imagination which serves alike to represent every kind of 
experience, but many, each developed in connection with 
the representation of experience of a given character. 
Attention, memory, imagination, etc., as functions of the 
intellect are, therefore, merely class terms employed to 
designate a variety of similar functions, developed in 



128 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

connection with giving meaning and value to particular 
t3^es of experience. i 

5. Use and Development of Cognitive Function Particular, 
not General. — This view of a cognitive function gives rise 
to a fundamental question. Can a cognitive function 
developed through the acquisition of a given kind of knowl- 
edge be used in gaining knowledge of a radically different 
character? To be definite, can mental power gained in 
arithmetic be used in learning history? The answer of 
modern psychology is something like this : 

In so far as the type of knowledge to be acquired is similar 
to that in connection with which the given function was 
developed, to that extent it is of use. This is true because 
of the similarity of mental work involved in the acquisition 
of the two kinds of knowledge. In so far, however, as the 
knowledge to be gained is different from that in connection 
with which the function was developed, to that extent it 
is useless. For as Hinsdale^ puts it, *'No matter what kind 
of mental activities we consider, they conform to the causes 
that excite them. Like the dyer's hand, the mental faculties 
are subdued to what they work in." 

The educational implication is that it is impossible to 
develop general cognitive functions or mental powers — 
useful under all conditions — through the teaching of two 
or three subjects, for cognitive functions develop through 
use in given ways and with reference to particular situations. 
To foster the rise and development of the cognitive functions 
needed in the adjustment of life to present social conditions, 
the curriculum must, therefore, contain a variety of studies 
and activities. 

6. The Law of Mental Development. — Since the de- 

1 Hinsdale, Educational Review, viii, p. 136. 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 129 

velopment of the intellect both on the side of content and 
of cognitive functions depends upon the range and kinds of 
experience given meaning and value through the different 
processes of learning, the development of the intellect with 
respect both to form and content is conditioned by the 
range and character of the experience worked over into 
knowledge through its activity on the different levels of 
learning. Or, as stated by Schurman/ "The mind grows 
by what it feeds on." 

7. Stages in tJie Development of the Intellect. — There 
are four stages in the development of the intellect. These 
were tacitly recognized in our consideration of the intellect 
as the medium of controUing and directing impulse, also in 
our discussion of the periods of psychical development, and 
likewise in our study of the processes of learning and of the 
stages in will development. The stages in the develop- 
ment of the intellect may be designated as the assimila- 
tive, the perceptual, the conceptual, and the systematic. 
Though distinct, these stages are reciprocally related; and 
although all the cognitive functions are to be found im- 
pHcitly or expHcitly in each, the nature and the activity 
of respective ones vary with the period, and there is a cor- 
responding variation in the learning process and in the 
view of the self and of the world afforded. Of these 
stages, the assimilative is the lowest and the systematic 
the highest, and it is the work of the teacher, in the de- 
velopment of the intellect, to advance the child from the 
one to the other. 

8. Intellectual Development and Character. — Character, 
as we have seen, is determined by the fixed ways in which 
the individual chooses to act. The particular way in which 

^ Schurman, School Review, ii, p. 93. 



I30 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

he chooses to act depends, at least in part, upon his knowl- 
edge of his nature, needs, and ends. Relatively complete 
knowledge of one's nature, needs, and ends implies a high 
degree of intelligence. Character development presupposes, 
therefore, intellectual development, and though the latter 
does not necessarily lead to the former, it is the basis and 
the condition of the former. A completely rounded char- 
acter impHes, then, a completely developed intellect. 

§7. The Process: Will and Intellectual 
Development 

Though the will and the intellect are separate aspects 

of psychical Kfe and have different functions therein, from 

the relation of their development to the acquisition and use 

of knowledge, it is apparent that they do not develop one 

apart from the other. For the will develops, on the one 

hand, as the experiences arising from the expression of its 

elements are given meaning and value, and the knowledge 

thus acquired utilized in better and better control and 

direction of their future expression, whereas the intellect 

develops, on the other hand, through working over into 

knowledge the experiences resultant upon the issuance of 

the will in action and through giving meaning and value 

to experience upon higher and higher levels of learning. 

Will development implies, therefore, that the intellect is 

being developed with respect to both form and content, 

while intellectual development impHes that the will is being 

expressed and formed. To be sure, the child does not 

develop equally and in all directions at the same time. 

Still, the development of the will involves normally a 

corresponding intellectual development, and vice versa, 

for the will can not be wrenched out of all relation to the 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHH^D 131 

intellect and be formed independently of it, nor can the 
intellect be isolated from the will and be properly cultured. 
Consequently, the development of the will and of the 
intellect are to be viewed as the two aspects of a single or 
unitary development, and to be regarded as reciprocally 
related and conditioned therein. 

§ 8. Unity in Process of Psychical Development 

The experience, the working of this over into knowledge, 
and the use of this knowledge, resulting in will develop- 
ment, is not one kind of experience and the way it is given 
significance one process of learning; nor is the experience 
and the giving of meaning and value to it, resulting in 
intellectual development, another kind of experience and a 
different process of learning. The experience in both cases 
is the same and this is given meaning and value through the 
same processes. Consequently, what is will development, 
from one point of view, is, from another, intellectual devel- 
opment, and the process involved therein — whether 
viewed from the side of the will or of the intellect — is the 
same. The development of the will and of the intellect 
are therefore not only reciprocally related and conditioned, 
but their development occurs in and through one and the 
same process. 

§ 9. The Process of Psychical Development 

The process in and through which the child develops psy- 
chically may therefore be characterized as one in which the 
will in its elements is given expression, the resulting expe- 
rience worked over through the medium of the intellect into 
knowledge, and this knowledge used in the better and better 
control and direction of the future expression of the will. 



132 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

§ lo. Educational Inferences 

To attain the end for which our study of how the child 
develops psychically was undertaken, it remains to bring 
the insights gained into relation to the work of education. 

1. Psychical Development: Will and Intellectual Devel- 
opment. — Since there are two factors involved, education, 
if it would foster the psychical development of the child as 
a whole, must seek to develop both the will and the intellect. 

2. Will and Intellectual Development Conditioned by 
Periods of Psychical Life. — Since the psychical develop- 
ment of the child falls into distinct stages, — each having 
its particular will and intellectual characteristics, — and 
the development of each lower stage conditions that in 
each higher, it is the work of education to give to the will 
and to the intellect in each period the development appro- 
priate to the period, appropriate to secure a normal de- 
velopment in the succeeding period, and appropriate to 
secure the will and intellectual development desired. 

3. The Condition of Will Development. — Since the de- 
velopment of the will is conditioned by the expression given 
its elements, by the character of the resulting experience, 
by the meaning and value assigned this, and by the way 
the knowledge thus attained is used in controlling and 
directing the future expression of the will, education must 
seek to give the will that expression, to supply the conditions 
of acquiring that resultant experience, of giving that mean- 
ing and value to this, and of making such use of the derived 
knowledge as to secure the desired will development. 

4. The Condition of Intellectual Development. — Since 
the development of the intellect is conditioned both on the 
side of form and content by the character of the experience 



PSYCHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 133 

given meaning and value, education must seek to supply 
such experience and to secure the giving of such meaning 
and value to this experience as is implied in the desired 
intellectual development. 

5. Psychical Development Unitary Process. — Since the 
development of the will and of the intellect are reciprocally 
related and conditioned, and since they develop in and 
through a unitary process, education should not seek to 
develop the one apart from the other, nor the will through 
one process and the intellect through another, but must 
seek to develop each in relation to the other, and in and 
through the same process. 

6. The Acquisition of Knowledge and Psychical Develop- 
ment. — Since the development of both the will and the 
intellect is conditioned by the acquisition and use of knowl- 
edge, education — if it would foster psychical development 
— must help the child to acquire experience, lead him to 
work this over into knowledge, and guide him in the use 
of the knowledge acquired. 

§ II. Educational Principles 

If these inferences are brought together and restated, 
we have the following principles applicable to fostering and 
determining the psychical development of the child: 

I. Education must seek, in each period of child life, to 
give to the will that expression, control, and direction, and 
to the intellect that form and content appropriate to the 
development of the distinctive will and intellectual char- 
acteristics of the period, appropriate to secure a normal 
will and intellectual development in the succeeding one, 
and appropriate to secure the will and intellectual develop- 
ment desired. 



134 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

2. Education must seek to lead the child, in each period 
of life, to acquire such experience, to direct him in working 
this over into such knowledge, and to guide him in making 
such use of this as will give to the will and to the intellect 
a development appropriate to the period, appropriate to 
secure a normal will and intellectual development in the 
succeeding one, and appropriate to secure the will and 
intellectual development desired. 

Readings 

Bagley, Educative Process, pp. 184-202. 

Home, Philosophy of Education, pp. 209-220. 

Bryan, Pedagogical Seminary, VII, pp. 360-394. 

Halleck, Psychology and Psychic Culture, pp. 66-68, 80-84, 180-200. 

Sully, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 130-132, 259-276, 290-292, 299-300, 

303-314, 447-474- 
Angell, Psychology, pp. 122-132, 223-246, 311-313, 340-381. 
Judd, Psychology, pp. 285-295, 315-336. 
Dewey, Psychology, pp. 347-424. 

How We Think, pp. 68-156. 
King, Psychology of Child Development, pp. 110-115. 
MacCunn, Making of Character, pp. 212-222. 
O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, pp. 233-238, 246-283. 
Thorndike, Educational Psychology, vol. i, pp. 170-194, 270-312. 
Henderson, Principles of Education, pp. 209-235. 
Colvin, The Learning Process ^ pp. 21 1-2 18. 



CHAPTER V 
THE LEARNING PROCESSES 

§ I. The Problem 

From the relation of knowledge to the psychical devel- 
opment of the child, it is necessary, if we would understand 
how to direct him in the acquisition and use of the knowl- 
edge needed to foster and control his development, to 
examine the movements and characteristics of thought 
within each of the learning processes. Two of these 
processes are of special interest to elementary education — 
the perceptual and the conceptual, with their respective 
inductive and deductive modes. 

§ 2. The Inductive Perceptual Process of Learning 

In our foregoing study of the general characteristics of 
the learning processes, the inductive perceptual process 
of learning was defined as that process of thought or of 
reasoning in and through which particular meaning and 
value are given to an essentially new experience, and the 
meaning and value given symboHzed to the self by an 
essentially new concrete idea or concrete idea-whole. 

I . The Rise of Need and of Motive. — Thought is for 
the sake of action and we act to give expression to impulse 
or to satisfy a need. Where there is no difficulty in the way 
of acting, there is no thought. The necessity of thought 
arises when there is such an obstacle, and the purpose of 



136 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

the given process of learning is to overcome the difficulty 
and to be able so to act as to satisfy a given need. Without 
a need to satisfy, and without an appreciation of a difficulty 
standing in the way, there is no motive for mental work 
and, as a matter of fact, none is done either by the child or 
by the adult. 

A process of inductive perceptual learning has its origin 
in a need, to satisfy which requires the acquisition and the 
giving of meaning and value to an essentially new experience, 
and the use of the essentially new concrete idea gained in 
overcoming the difficulty standing in the way of action. 
The rise in consciousness of a need which the child feels 
constrained to satisfy, and the appreciation of a difficulty 
standing in the way, which can be overcome only through 
the acquisition and use of an essentially new concrete idea, 
characterize the first step in a process of inductive perceptual 
learning. For it is the desire to satisfy such a need and the 
necessity of overcoming such a difficulty that supply the 
motive and give point to the resulting process of inductive 
perceptual thought. 

2. The Acquisition of Data. — With a difficulty to over- 
come in order to satisfy a given need, the child casts about 
for ways of doing it. If his desire can be gratified through 
making a bow and arrow, he seeks ways and means of making 
one. If his need can be satisfied through the solution of 
a problem, — such as finding out how many cents he has, — 
or through answering a question with reference to a strange, 
little animal, — a bat, — or through acquiring information 
with regard to how Robinson Crusoe built his house, he 
searches for materials, facts, and data which will supply the 
desired solution, answer, or information. His mind is, 
however, not in the least disturbed by how bows and arrows 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 137 

in general are made, by how to add any given numbers, or 
by what the essential characteristics of the strange little 
animal are; he is interested alone in the given construc- 
tion, in the solution of the given problem, or in the attractive 
facts in connection with the building of Robinson's house. 
To acquire the needed data with reference to the difficulty 
in hand is a distinct piece of mental work, and its acquisition 
marks the second step in a process of inductive perceptual 
learning. 

3. The Elaboration of Data. — The acquisition of ma- 
terials with respect to a particular construction, problem, 
or event should not be confused with the giving of meaning 
and value to the data collected. To do this, the facts, the 
sense-impressions, or the data gathered must be worked 
over to a greater or less extent. 

To illustrate, a child comes for the first time in contact 
with a bat and is moved by curiosity to know what it is. 
He will observe, in a general way, its head, body, wings, 
and certain of its actions. But the idea or picture-whole 
derived therefrom is as yet indistinct and the animal in 
question means Httle to him. For this reason he turns 
back and observes with care the more striking features of 
its head, eyes, mouth, body, and actions. With the more 
definite images of its bodily characteristics in mind, there is 
suggested a mouse, and the suggested similarity leads to 
comparison. Comparison reveals Hkenesses and differences 
and tends to make those features under consideration stand 
out, and because of recognized similarity more or less of 
particular meaning and value is transferred to them. 
Again, other bodily characteristics suggest the idea of a 
bird, comparison tends to impress these features upon the 
child's mind, and by reason of recognized similarity they 



138 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

take on concrete meaning and value. However much 
significance for the child the strange Httle annual may thus 
acquire, there remain features the meaning of which is not 
to be revealed through comparison; this can be given only 
through creative thought and inductive perceptual judg- 
ment. These latter processes become operative in answer- 
ing such questions as: Why does it have such big teeth, 
such queer eyes, such funny shaped wings, such a queer 
body covering? In some such way the child comes to have 
distinct images of the more important and characteristic 
aspects of the bat and somewhat of an appreciation of the 
significance of these parts as separate wholes. 

In giving meaning and value to the materials collected, 
there is imphed an analysis of the different sense-impressions 
obtained from an object, or of the different elements of a 
problem, or of the different factors entering into making a 
bow and arrow. This is done by centering attention upon 
the elements of experience appealing to the child as the 
more important in the given connection. There is also 
impHed a comparison of the means at hand and of the 
methods of construction suggested with what is needed, 
or a comparison of the given sense-qualities with those 
previously observed, or of the acquired facts with the same 
or similar ones previously comprehended. This comparison 
of the new with the old is not for the sake of finding elements 
of general meaning and value, but rather, in so far as this 
can be done upon the basis of recognized similarity to past 
experience, to make the separate means, qualities, or facts 
and their particular significance stand out clearly and 
distinctly. In an essentially new experience there are es- 
sentially new elements, — elements in a construction, sense- 
qualities of an object, facts of an event or story, — the 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 139 

meaning and value of which must be determined from the 
ground up and for the first time. The doing of this impKes 
creative thought and inductive perceptual judgment. 

It is this making clear, through analysis, comparison, 
creative thought, and perceptual judgment, the separate 
parts of a construction, the ways of constructing each part, 
and the reasons; or the making clear the particular sense- 
quahties of an object and their particular meaning and 
value; or the making clear the different elements of a prob- 
lem and their implications, or the separate facts of a story 
and their particular significance, that is distinctive of the 
mental work of the third step of inductive perceptual 
learning. 

4. Synthesis and Inference. — Though the child becomes 
aware, through the above processes, of what is involved 
and how to construct this or that part of a given thing, 
though he gains a definite image and appreciation of this 
or that quality of an object, or comes to appreciate the 
particular significance of this or that fact in an event or 
story, complete concrete insight requires that the knowledge 
. of separate means and ways of construction be brought 
together into one idea, that the different quaHties of the 
object be associated as a whole, that the separate facts in 
the desired information be synthesized, and that certain 
inferences, varying with the need, be made in the light of 
the essentially new concrete idea or picture-whole acquired. 
This associating, this fusing, this synthesizing of the 
elements, separated and given significance in the preceding 
steps, into an essentially new concrete idea or concrete 
idea-whole, and the drawing of inferences on the basis 
thereof, of what a given object is, of how to construct a 
given thing, of how to solve a given problem, or of how to 



140 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

overcome a given difficulty, mark the thought movement 
in the fourth step of this mode of learning. 

5. Application or Use. — The essentially new concrete 
idea or picture-whole thus acquired supplies the basis for 
overcoming the difficulty standing in the way of satisfying 
the need calling forth the given process of inductive percep- 
tual learning. The inciting need is sometimes gratified 
with the attainment of the answer to a given question or 
with the acquisition of desired information. There is, 
however, more often involved the use of the essentially 
new concrete knowledge obtained, in directing impulse in 
its expression, — that is, in directing action in overcoming 
an opposing difficulty, or in doing or making a desired thing, 
or in meeting a given situation, — and it is the use of the 
essentially new concrete idea or idea-whole gained to this 
end that characterizes the final step in inductive perceptual 
learning. 

§ 3. The Inductive Conceptual Process of Learning 

The inductive conceptual process of learning was defined 
above as that process of thought or of reasoning in and 
through which general meaning and value are given to an 
essentially new experience or group of experiences, and the 
meaning and value given symbolized to the self by an 
individual or essentially new class concept. 

I. The Rise of Need and of Motive. — The occasion for 
carrying on a process of inductive conceptual learning arises 
when, in his effort to satisfy a given need, the child comes 
face to face with a situation which, to be readily met, in- 
volves the acquisition and use of an essentially new general 
idea; for example, when the child to direct his actions in 
giving expression to an impulse must know the character- 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 141 

istics of all bats, or the principle controlling the right lever, 
or how to find any per cent of a given number, or what 
makes Niagara Falls famous. The presence of such a need 
and the appreciation of such a situation supply the motive 
for carrying through the implied process of learning, and 
give worth to the individual or essentially new class concept 
acquired. It is the rise in consciousness of such a need, 
the appreciation of such a situation, and the rise of the 
motive to overcome it that mark the first step in inductive 
conceptual learning. 

2 . The A cquisition of Data. — With the purpose for carry- 
ing on a given process of inductive conceptual thought in 
mind, the child begins to search for data — for materials 
which will aid in attaining the desired end. It is, however, 
not a search for the sense-qualities of a particular object, 
the elements of a particular problem, the facts of a given 
event or story. It is rather a search for the sense-quahties 
of similar objects, — such as of apples, — a search for the 
elements of similar problems, — say, in percentage, — or a 
search for the distinctive facts or features in a given whole, 
— like Niagara Falls, Lowell's "Longing," the Plymouth 
Colony, or the Missouri Compromise. The collection of such 
data, of such materials with reference to the mental work in 
hand, is a distinct movement of thought and it is this that 
is distinctive of the second step of this mode of learning. 

3. The Elaboration of Data. — Here again the materials 
collected should not be confused with the information 
sought. For the attainment of the individual or essentially 
new class concept needed calls for a thorough working over 
of the data gathered with reference to the common and 
essential, or with respect to the distinctive elements of 
general meaning and value embodied in them. 



142 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

There is included in doing this a more careful analysis 
of materials than that implied in their collection. This 
analysis does not consist, — if the end to be attained is a 
class concept, — in the separation of the data gathered with 
respect to a single construction, object, or story, as in the 
corresponding perceptual process, but in the separation 
of the materials collected with reference to each of several 
similar objects, constructions, problems, phenomena, or 
processes in question into their quahties, elements, factors, 
or parts; and even when the end sought is an individual 
concept, the analysis implied is far more thorough-going 
than that involved in inductive perceptual thought. 

Fixing upon the elements of general meaning and value 
also implies comparison. Not, however, a comparison — 
as is the case in perceptual induction, — of one quality or 
element with a similar one previously experienced, for the 
purpose of adding particular meaning and value to it, but a 
comparison — if a class concept is sought — of the qualities 
or elements discovered in several similar objects, con- 
structions, phenomena, or processes with regard to their 
common and essential character; or, if an individual concept 
is desired, it is a comparison of the elements found in a 
concrete whole with respect to their distinctiveness and 
relative importance. For example, it is a comparison of 
the qualities and features of one bat with those of several 
others, of the elements in one problem and its solution with 
those in different similar problems and their solution, of the 
factors in the process of making bricks at one point with the 
factors in the process of making them at other places, or it 
is a comparison of the characteristics of a concrete whole — 
such as Niagara Falls, the Plymouth Colony, "The Great 
Stone Face" — with those included in similar particulars, 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 143 

but more especially a comparison of the features of the one 
in question with respect to their distinctive character and 
significance. 

In addition to analysis and comparison, there is involved 
abstraction, that is, a coming, through processes of creative 
thought and inductive conceptual judgment, to an appre- 
ciation of certain elements in a group of objects, construc- 
tions, or problems as common and essential, or the coming 
to an appreciation of the distinctive character of certain 
elements in a given particular. 

This gaining of insight into separate elements of a class 
as common and essential, or into particular aspects of a 
given whole as distinctive, constitutes the mental work 
in the third step of inductive conceptual learning. 

4. Synthesis and Inference. — That the general idea may 
be acquired, the attainment of which supplies the guiding 
purpose of the process, there remains to bring together — to 
fuse into a mental whole — the ideas of the separate ele- 
ments found common and essential in the materials under 
consideration, and upon the basis of this idea- whole to draw 
an inference or generalization with respect to all similar 
data, for it is through this inference or generahzation that 
the essentially new class notion is attained. For example, 
the inference or generalization is the boy's definition of a 
bat, his idea of the principle of the right lever, his rule for 
the first problems in percentage. Or there remains to bring 
together the separate elements found distinctive of the 
given particular, as it is through fusing the ideas of the ele- 
ments recognized as distinctive that the individual concept 
is attained, or that the child comes to an appreciation of 
why Niagara is famous, of the distinctive features in the 
thought and form of "Longing," or of the important facts 



144 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

and the significance of the Missouri Compromise. It is 
this synthesis of ideas of the common and essential elements 
in a mass of data and the generalization on the basis thereof, 
or this synthesis of the ideas of the different distinctive and 
significant elements of a given particular and the implied 
if not explicit inference, which mark the movement of 
thought at this point in conceptual induction. 

5. Application or Use. — The thought process is not 
complete, however, with the attainment of the individual 
or essentially new class concept. The new principle, rule, 
or ideal was acquired that it might be used in directing 
action in the satisfaction of a given need, and the culmina- 
tion of the process is to be found in thus employing it. The 
initiating need is gratified at times with the attainment of 
the essentially new concept. Yet there is more often 
implied its application to meeting the situation, to solving 
the problem, or answering the question, standing in the 
way of satisfying the initiating need, and the use of the 
essentially new general idea acquired to this end constitutes 
the final movement of thought in inductive conceptual 
learning. 

§ 4. The Deductive Perceptual Process of Learning 

The deductive perceptual process of learning was defined, 
in our foregoing study, as that process of thought or of 
reasoning through which meaning and value are given to 
a new experience, and the meaning and value given sym- 
bolized to the self by a new concrete idea or idea-whole. 

I . The Rise of Need and of Motive. — Deductive thought, 
like inductive, is carried on for the purpose of directing 
action in the satisfaction of needs. The condition, however, 
giving rise to a process of deductive perceptual learning is 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 145 

different from that inciting a corresponding process of 
inductive learning, as it springs from a need which may be 
satisfied through meeting a situation, solving a problem, 
or answering a question in the Hght of previously acquired 
information, or through the acquisition and use of a new 
concrete idea. The presence in consciousness of such a 
need and the appreciation of such an opposing difficulty 
3deld the motive for carrying on the process of perceptual 
deduction implied in overcoming the given obstacle and 
in satisfying the inciting need. The rise in consciousness 
of a need that may be thus satisfied, the appreciation of 
such a difficulty, and the rise of a motive to overcome it 
characterize the first step in a process of deductive per- 
ceptual learning. 

2. The Acquisition of Data. — The mere appreciation 
that a given situation must be met, a given object 
determined, or a given problem solved, if a particular need 
is to be satisfied, imphes some little knowledge of the oppos- 
ing obstacle. The meeting of the situation, the determina- 
tion of the object, or the solution of the problem in question 
involves, however, a more thorough knowledge than that 
presupposed in the mere formulation of the difficulty. To 
acquire the needed concrete insight necessitates the 
gathering of data or materials with respect to the given 
situation, object, or problem. To gather these data is 
mental work and it is the doing of it that marks the second 
step of deductive perceptual learning. 

To illustrate, a boy finds that birds are taking the seeds 
from his garden and there comes the desire to prevent this. 
The difficulty to be met and the motive to overcome it 
arise in the child's mind at the same time. The mere 
formulation of the desired end does not, however, carry with 



146 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

it a knowledge of how to attain the given purpose. This 
implies, at least, the gathering of certain facts with reference 
to the situation to be met and the collection of data with 
respect to the means to be employed. Or, a ten-year-old 
wishes to grow pop-corn and in his endeavor to satisfy his 
desire is confronted with the question : Is this a good place 
to plant it? Whatever the boy does or does not know about 
raising pop-corn, the answer to the question confronting 
him necessitates a study of the given place. In doing this 
he observes that the place is on the top of a high, steep hill 
facing south, and that the soil is a dry, hard clay, full of 
pebbles. Or, a child hungry from play comes upon a plate 
of light-colored grape-like things, — Malaga grapes. He 
has often eaten Concord grapes, but never before has he 
seen things just like these. The question arises: What are 
these? Are they good to eat? If the child is to learn of 
himself, he must observe, touch, smell, and taste the things 
in question. 

3. The Recall of Old Ideas. — The sense-experiences or 
the facts obtained do not yield of themselves the desired 
new concrete ideas or insights, they are but one of the 
factors involved in this. Since the situation or problem 
is such that it can be met or solved most readily in the light 
of previously acquired concrete information, or through the 
acquisition and use of a new concrete idea or idea-whole, 
there is involved the bringing to mind of the particular 
concrete ideas gained in meeting a similar situation or in 
determining a similar object. The boy, for example, con- 
fronted with keeping the birds from his seeds, thinks of how 
he has seen others keep them from things and remembers 
that his friend kept them away from his cherries by putting 
a scarecrow in the tree. The boy with the pop-corn enter- 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 147 

prise, in trying to answer his question, calls to mind the 
character of the place where his uncle plants his. The 
boy with the Malaga grapes recalls, because of recognized 
similarity, his ideas of Concord grapes. The bringing to 
mind of such concrete ideas is distinctive of a process of 
deductive perceptual learning in the third step. 

4. The Elaboration of Data. — The concrete ideas pre- 
viously acquired and now recalled serve as the basis for 
giving meaning and value with ease and economy to the 
sense-impressions or materials in question, or of attaining 
the new concrete idea or insight sought, yet in attaining the 
desired new concrete idea or idea- whole, there is implied 
both an analysis of the data collected and of the concrete 
idea or ideas brought to mind; there is involved also a 
comparison and the coming to a recognition, through crea- 
tive thought and deductive perceptual judgment, of the 
casual likenesses and differences between parts of the situ- 
ation or sense-quaHties of the object in question and the 
memory idea of one previously met or determined, and the 
withholding or the transfer of concrete meaning and value 
to particular elements of the given data in view of recog- 
nized similarities or differences. The boy with the garden 
analyzes, for example, the data collected with reference to 
the situation facing him, also his remembrance of the one 
confronting his friend in keeping the birds from his cherries; 
he compares the two and through creative thought and 
deductive perceptual judgment recognizes certain similar- 
ities; in view of the similarities recognized, certain elements 
of the given situation take on significance and he comes to 
appreciate how to meet different parts of it. The one 
wishing to raise pop-corn analyzes his impressions of the 
place before him and his knowledge of where his uncle 



148 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

plants pop-corn; he compares the conditions found in the 
two, comes to a consciousness of certain differences, and 
withholds from the conditions in question the meaning and 
value ascribed to the conditions found where his uncle 
raises pop-corn. The boy with the Malaga grapes analyzes 
the sense-impressions gained from them, also his ideas 
of the qualities of Concord grapes; a few differences in size, 
color, taste and fibre are noted, but many similarities are 
observed, and on the basis of the similarities recognized, 
the concrete meaning and value belonging to Concord 
grapes are transferred to the things in question. Analysis, 
comparison, the passing of deductive conceptual judg- 
ments, and the transfer or withholding of concrete meaning 
and value in view of recognized similarity or difference is, 
then, the work of this step of deductive perceptual learning. 
5. Synthesis and Inference. — With insight into the 
several parts of the situation facing him, and into ways of 
meeting these, or in possession of distinct impressions of 
the several qualities of an object and their respective con- 
crete meaning and value, or their lack of it, the child 
proceeds to fuse these into a new concrete idea and upon 
the basis of this draws conclusions. The boy with the 
garden fuses his several insights into how to meet the 
situation facing him, and decides he can keep the birds 
from his seeds by erecting a scarecrow. The one launching 
the pop-corn enterprise draws together his impressions of 
the place under consideration, and infers that it is not 
adapted to the raising of pop-corn. The boy with the 
Malaga grapes fuses his several impressions of the dif- 
ferent quaHties noted with the meaning and value he at- 
taches to them into a new concrete idea, and concludes 
the things in question are a kind of grape and good to eat. 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 149 

It is this associating or synthesis of the different impres- 
sions and insights gained in view of recognized likenesses 
or differences into a concrete idea-whole, and the drawing 
of inferences on the basis of the new concrete idea thus 
acquired, that mark the deductive perceptual process of 
learning in its fifth step. 

6. Application or Use. — Since a process of deductive 
perceptual learning is carried on in view of a definite end, 
the final step in it is the satisfaction of the initiating need. 
The initiating need may be gratified through the mere 
acquisition of given concrete insight. As a rule, however, 
the thought process, arising as it does from the necessity 
of action, finds its culmination in action, and it is the 
direction of action on the basis of the concrete idea-whole 
acquired in the preceding step that constitutes the final 
thought movement in this process of learning. The boy 
with the garden, for example, in view of the concrete 
insight gained, erects a scarecrow; the one interested in 
pop-corn seeks another place; the one with the Malaga 
grapes eats to his satisfaction. 

§ 5. The Deductive Conceptual Process of Learning 

The deductive conceptual process of learning was defined 
as that process of thought or of reasoning in and through 
which general meaning and value are given to a new experi- 
ence or a group of new experiences, and the meaning and 
value given S3nTibolized to the self by a particular or new 
class concept. 

I . The Rise of Need and of Motive. — The situation call- 
ing forth a process of deductive conceptual learning is 
similar to that giving rise to the corresponding process of 
inductive learning. There is, however, this diilerence: the 



I50 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

necessity of carrying on a process of deductive conceptual 
thought arises from the presence of a difficulty in the way 
of action or of satisfying a need, which can be overcome 
most economically and effectually through the use of a 
general idea or general ideas previously acquired. The 
presence of a need that can be thus satisfied and the appre- 
ciation of such an opposing difficulty yield the motive for 
thought, and it is the rise in consciousness of such a need, 
the appreciation of such a difficulty, and the rise of the 
motive to resolve the difficulty and satisfy the inciting need 
that is distinctive of the first step of deductive conceptual 
learning. 

2. The Acquisition of Data. — The presence of a motive 
for doing the mental work involved in a process of deductive 
conceptual learning does not of itself supply the insight 
needed to solve the problem or to answer the question at 
issue. There is involved in the attainment of this the 
getting of additional materials of knowledge. The materials 
required will vary according as the resolution of the diffi- 
culty implies the acquisition and use of a particular or new 
class concept. The acquisition of these needed data marks 
the second step of deductive conceptual learning. 

In case the difficulty can be overcome through the 
acquisition and use of a particular concept, there is need 
of gathering data with reference to the particular difficulty 
or situation in question only. Take, for example, the boy 
interested in growing pop-corn. If his thought is elevated 
to the conceptual plane, he needs to gather facts with 
reference to the given place only. The data gathered by 
the boy on this level of thinking will be similar to those 
collected in deductive perceptual learning, and similar to 
those collected in inductive conceptual learning when an 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 151 

individual concept is sought; still, the data are gathered 
with more intelligence and attention is centered more 
especially upon elements which he has previously learned 
are of importance. Or, take the settler interested in east- 
ern North Dakota; he needs to acquire information about 
this section only.' 

On the other hand, if the difficulty can be resolved 
most economically or the question answered most readily 
through the acquisition and use of a new class concept, 
there is need of acquiring data with reference to a number 
of particulars. The boy knowing the noun and its uses 
and wishing to know what a substantive clause is and what 
its function, must study with care the elements in a number 
of typical substantive clauses; likewise the boy who has 
previously mastered the first case of percentage and is 
desirous of knowing how to find profit and loss, must study 
a number of typical problems in profit and loss. Though 
the data thus collected are similar to those gathered in 
inductive conceptual learning when an essentially new 
class concept is sought, there is this difference: the facts 
collected with reference to the given particulars are those 
that the child recognizes as having been of importance in 
connection with particulars previously studied, and which 
already have for him certain general significance. 

3 . The Recall of Old Ideas. — The materials thus gathered 
do not of themselves yield the desired knowledge; further 
significance must be given them. Since the particular 
facts can be given this additional meaning and value most 
economically in the light of concepts previously acquired, 
there is involved the recall — in view of suggested similar- 
ity — of such general ideas as may be of service. Take, 
for example, the boy desirous of growing pop-corn. If his 



152 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

thought is elevated to the conceptual level, after he learns 
that the place under consideration is dry and the soil poor, 
to understand the significance of these facts he no longer 
tries to remember the characteristics of the place where 
his uncle plants pop-corn, but he seeks to bring to mind 
the general climatic and soil conditions essential to the 
growth of corn. Nor does the boy wishing to know how 
to find profit and loss seek to remember how he solved 
a particular problem in the first case of percentage, but 
endeavors to bring to mind the essential elements in such 
problems and the essential steps in the process involved 
in their solution. This recall of class concepts previously 
acquired and now helpful in making clear the meaning and 
value of the data in question distinguishes the third step 
of deductive conceptual learning. 

4. The Elaboration of Data. — Still, the concepts brought 
to mind merely serve as the basis of giving significance to 
the data gathered. The attainment of the desired par- 
ticular or new class concept involves an analysis, on the 
one hand, of the facts collected, and, on the other, of the 
general idea or ideas recalled. There is involved also a 
comparison of the elements found in the former with those 
included within the latter with respect to essential simi- 
larity and difference. There is impHed further the coming 
to a consciousness, through creative thought and deductive 
conceptual judgment, of the essential similarities or differ- 
ences between the elements in the given data and the ele- 
ments of the given general idea or ideas, and the transfer 
in view of recognized essential similarities, or the non- 
transfer in view of recognized essential differences, of 
general meaning and value to particular elements of the 
data in question. 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 153 

To illustrate, the boy who wishes to grow pop-corn 
needs to acquire a particular concept, and after learning 
the facts with reference to the place in question and having 
recalled the general conditions essential to the production 
of corn, analyzes into their constituent factors the given 
data and the conception brought to mind; through pro- 
cesses of comparison, creative thought, and deductive 
conceptual judgment he comes to see that the respective 
conditions are essentially different from those conducive 
to the growth of corn, and for this reason withholds the 
general meaning and value belonging to conditions that 
are favorable. Or, the boy who wants to know how to 
solve simple problems in profit and loss and is therefore 
in need of a new class concept, analyzes the examples in 
question into their factors, also the rule covering the first 
case of percentage; through comparison, creative thought, 
and judgment he notes that the common elements in the 
examples under consideration are essentially similar to 
those imposed by the rule, and seeing this transfers to the 
elements in question the general meaning and value that 
he has previously learned belong to such elements. This 
analysis of the data and of the concept or concepts brought 
to mind, this comparison of the elements included in each, 
the coming to the appreciation of essential likenesses or 
differences, and the consequent withholding or transfer of 
general meaning and value constitute the fourth step in 
this process of learning. 

5. Synthesis and Inference. — In possession of ideas of 
the constituent elements in the data in question, and in 
possession of insight into the general meaning and value 
belonging or failing to belong to the several elements, the 
child fuses these ideas and insights into a particular or new 



154 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

class concept and on the basis thereof draws inferences or 
generalizes with reference to how to answer a given ques- 
tion, to meet a given situation, or to solve a given class 
of problems. The prospective settler with clear ideas of 
the soil, the moisture, and the temperature of eastern 
North Dakota, and conscious of the general meaning and 
value adhering to such physical conditions, brings his several 
impressions and insights into a particular concept, that is, 
sees in eastern North Dakota a particular expression of the 
general conditions of agriculture, and in the Hght of the 
particular concept acquired infers that this section is 
suited to general farming. The boy with mathematical 
interest fuses his ideas of the essential elements in the given 
problems and his general insight into how to handle such 
mathematical elements into a new class concept, and on 
the basis of this formulates a rule covering all problems 
in simple profit and loss. This synthesis of insights into 
the general meaning and value of different elements of 
experience, or into their lack of it, the creation thereby 
of particular or new class concepts, and the drawing of 
inferences or generalizing on the basis of these mark the 
intellectual work of deductive conceptual learning in the 
fifth step. 

6. Application or Use. — As with other modes of learn- 
ing, the need giving rise to a process of deductive conceptual 
learning may be satisfied with the acquisition of the result- 
ing insight. The process culminates as a rule, however, in 
the application of the concept gained in overcoming the 
difficulty which stands in the way of so acting as to gratify 
the inciting need ; and it is the use of the knowledge acquired 
in directing action to this end that characterizes the final 
thought movement in deductive conceptual learning. 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 155 

§ 6. The Learning Processes Abridged and Unabridged 

Such are the movements and characteristics of thought 
within each of the learning processes in which elementary 
education is particularly interested. It is not claimed, 
however, that in the exercise of a given learning process 
the thought movement passes through each of the several 
steps. For the learning processes are often abridged, that 
is, certain steps are wholly or in part omitted, — it may be 
the step of the acquisition of data, or of recall, or of elabo- 
ration, — depending upon the learner and upon what is 
being learned. Even when a process of learning is un- 
abridged, that is, when there is no omission of steps, — and 
this is seldom the case when the child is left to himself, — 
there is much going forward and backward, as, for example, 
from the step of the elaboration of data to that of the 
acquisition of data, and vice versa. Nevertheless, it is held, 
when the learning processes are unabridged and exercised 
in their most perfect and effective form, that the steps 
within each are as indicated and the character of the 
thought as described. 

§ 7. Range and Period of Operation 

From the nature of the ideas gained in and through the 
inductive perceptual and conceptual processes of learning, 
it is obvious that the operations of the former are Hmited 
only by the essentially new concrete ideas, and those of the 
latter by the individual and essentially new class concepts 
to be obtained. Similarly, the operation of the deductive 
perceptual process of learning is limited only by the new 
concrete ideas and the operation of the deductive conceptual, 
by the particular or new class concepts to be acquired. 



156 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

Between two and ten, the child is employed, in the main, 
in getting concrete ideas or picture-wholes. For this 
reason, it is during these years — the kindergarten and 
primary school period — that the inductive and deductive 
perceptual processes of learning are in active use. From 
ten on, the child is occupied more especially in acquiring 
general ideas. Consequently it is during this — the gram- 
mar school period — that the inductive and deductive 
conceptual processes of learning are employed. 

§ 8. Educational Principles 

In view of the nature of the learning processes and the 
type of ideas acquired in and through them, we have the 
following principles applicable to directing the child in 
the acquisition and use of knowledge : 

1. In leading the child to acquire an essentially new 
experience, in directing him in working it over into an 
essentially new concrete idea or ideas, and in guiding him 
in the use of this essentially new knowledge, procedure 
must conform to the movements and characteristics of 
thought as manifest in the inductive perceptual process 
of learning. 

2. In leading the child to acquire an essentially new 
experience or group of experiences, in directing him in 
working it over into an individual or essentially new 
class concept, and in guiding him in the use of this essen- 
tially new knowledge, procedure must conform to the 
movements and characteristics of thought as manifest in 
the inductive conceptual process of learning. 

3. In leading the child to acquire a new experience, in 
directing him in working it over into a new concrete idea 
or ideas, and in guiding him in the use of this new knowl- 



THE LEARNING PROCESSES 157 

edge, procedure must conform to the movements and 
characteristics of thought as manifest in the deductive 
perceptual process of learning. 

4. In leading the child to acquire a new experience or 
group of experiences, in directing him in working it over 
into a particular or new class concept, and in guiding him 
in the use of this new knowledge, procedure must conform 
to the movements and characteristics of thought as mani- 
fest in the deductive conceptual process of learning. 

Readings 

Angell, Psychology, pp. 121-132, 137-140. 
Thorndike, Elements of Psychology, pp. 19-73- 

Principles of Teaching, pp. 42-50, 133-178. 

Educational Psychology, vol. ii, pp. 17-150. 
Hobhouse, Mind in Evolution, pp. 11 2-139. 
Swift, Mind in the Making, pp. 169-218. 
McMurry, Elements of General Method, pp. 212-296. 
Adams, Herhartian Psychology Applied to Education, pp. 135-195. 
Colvin, The Learning Process, pp. 281-330. 
Miller, The Psychology of Thinking, pp. 91-129, 189-298. 
Dewey, How We Think, pp. 157-200. 



PART II 
APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES 



CHAPTER VI 
THE MEANING AND AIM OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

1. Education is a function of society, and the educational 
system of a given society must be such as will provide for its 
existence, development, and perfection. 

2. That system of education which provides for the exis- 
tence, development, and perfection of a given society is at the 
same time the system which will provide for the highest mode 
of life, the highest development and self-realization of its 
members. 

3. The giving of appropriate expression, control, and 
direction to the will, or the developmeftt of the will, constitutes 
the primary work of education — the end to which every 
phase of it must be subordinated. 

4. The development of the intellect is the secondary work of 
education, and the intellect must be so developed with respect 
to both form and content and only so developed as to give to 
the will the necessary expression and the desired determination. 

5. Education must seek, in each period of child life, to give 
the will that expression, control, and direction, and to the intel- 
lect that form and content, appropriate to the development of the 
distinctive will and intellectual characteristics of tlie period, 
appropriate to secure a normal will and intellectual develop- 
ment in the succeeding one, and appropriate to secure the will 
and intellectual development desired. 

6. Education must seek to lead the child, in each period 
of life, to acquire such experience, to direct him in working 



i62 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

this over into such knowledge, and to guide him in making 
such use of this knowledge as will give to the will and to the 
intellect a development appropriate to the period, appropriate 
to secure a normal will and intellectual development in the 
succeeding one, and appropriate to secure the will and intel- 
lectual development desired, 

§ I. The Problem 

We have been engaged up to this time in making clear 
the basis and in formulating the principles conditioning 
elementary education as an art. It yet remains to bring 
these principles to bear upon the solution of the problems 
of the elementary school. The practical problems of ele- 
mentary education may be stated in the form of four ques- 
tions: (i) What is the meaning and aim of elementary 
education? (2) What should be the character of the ele- 
mentary school curriculum? (3) What should be the 
method of elementary instruction? (4) How should the 
elementary school be organized? Answering these ques- 
tions, in the light of the principles developed, constitutes 
the second part of our study. 

§ 2. The Meaning of Education 

In so far as educational writers have discussed the mean- 
ing of education, it has been considered, on the whole, 
from the point of view of the individual alone. So satu- 
rated are we with individuaHstic ideas of education, and 
so long has its meaning been treated only from the side 
of the child, that until lately it has been quite foreign to 
think of the school as having anything to do with society. 
Indeed, throughout the nineteenth century it was revolu- 
tionary to suggest that the primary significance of educa- 



MEANS OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 163 

tion is in its relation to the life of society and not in its 
relation to the life of the individual. 

I. Meaning from Side of Society. — The social meaning 
of education appears when the work of the school is con- 
sidered with reference to the first of the above principles. 

The existence of society is conditioned, as we have seen, 
by certain psychical capacities on the part of its members, 
by a certain common knowledge of means and of ends 
possessed and applied by them, and by certain purposes 
and habits common to their activities. If the young of 
America were to be deprived of the opportunity of gaining 
this mental development, of obtaining this common fund 
of knowledge, of acquiring these common modes of feehng, 
common aspirations, and habits of action, the forms of 
democratic life as we know and enjoy them would dis- 
appear with the next generation. 

It was, however, the Ancients and not the Moderns who 
first appreciated the meaning of education with respect 
to the preservation and continuation of social life. So 
thoroughly was this phase of its significance grasped by 
Orientals, — ancient Egyptians, Persians, Chinese, — that 
this constituted for them its whole meaning. In conse- 
quence, there resulted, for example, in China, what has 
been characterized '^education as recapitulation," that is, 
a system of education devoted to transmitting to the 
on-coming generation that knowledge and to inculcating 
those habits of conduct essential to the continuance of 
society in the next generation as it exists in the present. 
A like idea prevailed among the Spartans. With them 
every aspect of education was determined by social needs 
and had reference to the continuation of Spartan institu- 
tions as then constituted. Even with Plato the sole 



i64 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

problem was, given an ideal society, how can its continued 
existence be conserved through the school? 

With the submersion of Greek and Roman Hfe by the 
tides of barbarianism from the North, the social signifi- 
cance of education was lost to view; with the over-emphasis 
of individualism in earlier modern times, it was ignored; 
and only with the estabUshment of modern democracies 
was it again appreciated. This appreciation has found 
varied expression. In the Ordinance of 1787, we find 
these oft-quoted words, ''Religion, morahty, and knowl- 
edge, being necessary to good government and the happiness 
of mankind, schools and the means of education shall for- 
ever be encouraged." The following has found place in 
some form or other in the constitution of every state of 
the American Union, "Knowledge and learning generally 
diffused throughout all parts of a state being essential to 
the preservation of a free government, it shall be the duty 
of the general assembly to provide by law for a general 
and uniform system of schools, wherein tuition shall be 
without charge, and equally to all." Webster enunciates 
the same thought, ''On the diffusion of education among 
the people rest the preservation and perpetuation of our 
free institutions." Condorcet reflected but the common 
mind of the French Revolution, when he said, "A free 
government that does not undertake the universal instruc- 
tion of its citizens will come to destruction." 

Long after the meaning of education with reference to 
the preservation and continuation of society was ap- 
preciated by statesmen and embodied in law by America 
and the more progressive nations of Europe, educational 
thinkers came to accept this view. Perhaps no one has 
done more of late to force it to the front than Dr. Dewey, 



MEANS OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 165 

who says/ ''The school is fundamentally an institution 
erected by society to do a certain specific work, — to 
exercise a certain specific function in maintaining the 
life and advancing the welfare of society. The moral 
responsibility of the school, and of those who conduct it, 
is to society." 

That the social order must develop and that it must be 
continuously improved, if it is to perform its function, is 
a relatively new conception. Society, however, does not 
develop and improve of itself. This is conditioned, as we 
have seen, by the constructive and creative abiHty of 
certain of its members. The members of society are not 
born with the ability to initiate social changes, to create 
new social ideals. Before the most gifted are able to make 
even the smallest contribution to social improvement, they 
must receive years of nurture. Limit the on-coming 
generation to opportunities alone requisite to provide the 
psychical development in the individual essential to the 
existence of the social whole, and further social progress 
and social perfection are stopped. Under such conditions, 
one period of social Hfe is like another — the customs, 
traditions, and ideals of one generation are handed on 
unchanged to the next, and the succeeding generation is 
powerless to alter and improve. A society, therefore, 
that would fulfill its function and would be continuously 
adjusted thereto, must provide for its progressive de- 
velopment and perfection. The means through which 
this may be done is the school, and it is in viewing educa- 
tion in relation to the development and perfection of the 
social body that its further meaning from the social side is 
to be appreciated. 

^ Dewey, Ethical Principles Underlying Education, p. 10. 



i66 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

The sociologists were the first to call attention to this 
aspect of its significance, and the chief of these was Lester 
F. Ward.^ So impressed was he with the thought that edu- 
cation is the ultimate means of perfecting social life, that 
he beHeved, ''If society ever becomes fully conscious of the 
end of its being and of the relation of the various means 
thereto, after its regulative function, it will concentrate 
its entire energy upon education." "The function of 
education, from a societary point of view," says Howerth,^ 
''is to modify and accelerate social evolution." 

Educationists were quick to agree with the sociologists. 
"Education/' writes Dewey ,^ "is the fundamental method 
of social progress and reform." "Through education 
society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its 
own means and resources, and thus shape itself with 
definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes 
to move." "Every teacher should realize the dignity of 
his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the 
maintenance of proper social order and the securing of 
the right social growth." 

The meaning of education, from the social point of 
view, is therefore to be found in the fact that it is the 
institution through which society conserves its existence 
and provides for its perfection, or secures the continuation 
and progressive adjustment of itself to its function. 

2. Meaning from Side of Individual. — On the other 
hand, the significance of education for the individual is 
suggested by the last five of the above principles. 

Notwithstanding the individual is predisposed by hered- 

1 Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. ii, pp. 631, 589, 591, 632-633. 

2 Howerth, Fifth Year Book of National Hcrbartian Society, p. 75. 
' Dewey, Educational Creeds of XlXth Century, pp. 17-19- 



MEANS OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 167 

ity to social life in general and to that of his own people 
in particular, wholly unassisted, he is unable of himself 
to attain that development of hereditary capacity essential 
to Hfe under social conditions, and apart from society 
there is no human life as we know it. The psychical 
development needed to enable the child to enter into and 
enjoy modes of social life is secured to him by education. 
Education means, in consequence, from this point of view, 
the process of humanization and socialization whereby the 
human will is given such expression and direction, through 
the appropriate development of the intellect with respect 
to form and content, that the individual is able to par- 
ticipate in social hfe and prepared to live according to its 
forms and standards, or is prepared to Hve economically 
and spiritually as a person. 

The individual does not seek, however, to hve merely 
as a person, but he also seeks his own highest development 
and self-realization. The development and self-realization 
that the individual can attain depend in part, as we have 
seen, upon the materials of culture that he can make his 
own. Of himself he is able to create but a small part of the 
materials of culture involved in his highest development. 
These must be suppKed him by the social order of which 
he is a member; and it is in this connection that the fur- 
ther significance of education from the side of the individual 
is to be grasped. For it is the process through which the 
cultural resources of society are so placed at his disposal 
that, through making these his own and using them, he 
is able to give such form and content to his intellect and 
such expression and direction to his will as enables him 
to attain the highest development and self-realization 
under the given conditions. In short, education is the 



i68 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

process through which the child is prepared not only to 
live as a person, but prepared also for the fullest and richest 
personal life. 

3. Unity in Meaning. — The meaning of education 
differs, therefore, according as it is regarded from the 
side of society or from the side of the individual. This 
difference arises from considering its meaning as if society 
and the individual were unrelated. By reason, however, 
of the relation between society and the individual, and by 
reason of the second of the foregoing principles, education 
has but one meaning and may be defined as that process 
through which the development and the highest life of 
the individual is conserved through so humanizing and 
socializing him as to conserve directly the existence, 
development, and perfection of society. 

§ 3. The Aim of Education 

I. Aim from Side of Society. — The aim of education, 
when formulated in view of the first of the foregoing 
principles, is to provide for the existence, development, 
and the perfection of the society supporting the given 
system of schools. 

When thus formulated, the aim of any given school 
system becomes national and not international in its scope; 
it has to do with the life of a given social body and not 
with the world at large. In consequence, the aim of the 
school system of no two societies can ever be the same, 
unless these perchance are identical in nature, members, 
and needs. The working aim of the schools of China 
will therefore be one thing, of Germany, another, and of 
the United States, still another. Yet this ought not to 
disturb the teacher. It does not stagger the scientist when 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 169 

the actions of a principle are not always the same. Differ- 
ences are explained, not through repudiating the principle, 
but through finding differences in the materials acted upon, 
or in the conditions under which the principles are applied. 
So it should be with the teacher. He ought to see, even 
though education must be made essentially national in its 
purposes and ends, and even though these vary with the 
nation, that the principles determining the aim of the school 
are universal. 

• The end of education as thus stated becomes more 
concrete and real if an analysis is made of the different 
phases of social Hfe, and if the aim of education is stated 
with reference to these. The phases of societary life are 
the industrial, the social, the intellectual, the artistic, and 
the moral-rehgious. • A word will make clear the meaning 
of each. 

To the industrial or economic phase of society belong 
those activities having to do with the production and 
exchange of the commodities of life, and especially with 
those employed in the satisfaction of physical and material 
needs. To discuss the social character of production and 
exchange is not our purpose. Suffice it to say that around 
and out of these have arisen a multitude of occupations, 
trades, associations, and professions, each of which pre- 
supposes a certain kind of labor, the appHcation of a cer- 
tain amount of scientific or technical knowledge, and 
*' trade traditions," and the presence and use of more or 
less skill. There belong here also certain habits of action, 
certain ideals and principles of conduct adhering to par- 
ticular trades and occupations, and a body of common and 
statute law applying to all. 

The social phase includes the family, ^'social" intercourse. 



170 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

and political life. The family, as an institution, rests upon 
insight into the relations and mutual obligations of husband 
and wife, and those existing between parents and children; 
it rests also upon customs, knowledge, principles, and 
ideals, while it is safeguarded by a body of law defining 
its legal status and fixing the standards of married Hfe. 

By "social" intercourse is meant "society" as this 
term is generally used, and it comprehends all free and 
voluntary interminghng with others, outside the family 
circle, for the sake of "social" enjoyment. The forms 
taken by "social" intercourse are legion; there is mingling 
one with another in conversation, entertainments, "socie- 
ties," and clubs of every description. Out of these modes 
of association have arisen rules of etiquette, customs, 
ceremonies, ideals of poHteness, of sociabiHty, of good 
breeding, of regard and consideration for others, and these 
are a part of "social" intercourse and constitute its basis. 

Political life, as the third element of the social phase, 
comprises all that has to do with the conservation of the 
social body through the direct means of government. To 
it adhere forms of local, state, and national government, 
and all activities on the part of officials and the people 
related to their administration. There are to be included 
also knowledge of the nature and character of the different 
units of government, insight into the principles underlying 
the life of the social whole as embodied in the constitution 
of the state and nation, and an appreciation of the implica- 
tions of these with reference to social and individual Ufe. 

The intellectual phase embraces those labors of men 
directed toward mental culture and the acquisition and 
diffusion of knowledge. These may be those of private 
individuals, of special associations, or of society as a whole. 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 171 

The endeavors of private individuals vary from the acqui- 
sition of knowledge for personal ends to its acquisition and 
dissemination for the use of others. The work of special 
associations is equally varied; there are literary and scien- 
tific associations, from the country debating club to the 
Society for Psychical Research, each having its special 
object and accomplishing its purpose in its own way. 
The labors of society in this direction touch almost every 
intellectual interest, range over the whole field of learning, 
and utilize almost every known means: papers, bulletins, 
schools, expeditions, and surveys. Back of this intellectual 
activity there Kes the world of extant knowledge, concep- 
tions of its general and special utility, ideals of scholarship 
and of literary attainment, habits of thought, and tradi- 
tional attitudes with reference to the acquisition, diffusion, 
and preservation of learning. 

The artistic phase comprehends all that relates to the 
production and enjoyment of the beautiful; and this 
occupies a larger place than casual thought reveals. With 
this phase are to be associated those activities having to 
do with the production of poetry, music, painting, sculp- 
ture, and architecture; also those activities connected with 
aesthetic enjoyment, the preservation of art, and the culti- 
vation of a love of the beautiful — such as concerts, 
exhibitions, excursions, art and music schools, museums, 
and public parks. As the basis and foundation of this 
activity and as an essential part of this phase of social 
life, there exist a fund of art knowledge, a world of art 
treasures, ideals of the beautiful, well-fixed artistic tastes, 
a deep sense of aesthetic appreciation, habits of artistic 
reaction, and a well-defined body of art customs and 
traditions. 



172 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

To the moral-religious phase belong those actions of 
the individual, prompted by a sense of right and wrong, 
and by a sense of duty or obligation to God, also those 
associations having primarily a moral-religious purpose, 
among which are charity boards of various types, fraternal 
and aid societies of divers descriptions, reformatory and 
eleemosynary institutions, and, finally, the church with 
its innumerable auxiliaries and corollaries. All these 
individual and institutional activities are but the expres- 
sion of a system of moral and religious ideals : ideas of right 
and wrong, of honor, of honesty, of courage, of purity, of 
charity, of love, of manhood and womanhood, of duty to 
one's self, to others, and to God; and these ideas are 
grounded in a world of experience and teachings. 

Such in outHne are the phases of social life, each embrac- 
ing a distinct range of individual and social activities, 
and based upon a specific fund of customs, knowledge, 
and ideals. No hard and fast fine can be drawn between 
them, for they are reciprocally related. Taken together, 
they constitute the organic life of society, and are not only 
vital and necessary manifestations of it, but represent the 
directions in which society must progress. Ignore any one 
of these phases, and the hand of death is laid upon social 
life in its unity. 

From this point of view, the societary aim of education 
may therefore be said to be to provide for those modes 
of activity in the on-coming generation, through the trans- 
mission of those customs and traditions, of that knowledge 
of means and of ideals requisite to secure, in the next, the 
preservation and progressive development and perfection 
of the different phases of the life of the nation supporting 
the given schools. 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 173 

2. Aim from Side of the Individual. — On the other hand, 
the individuaHstic aim of education is conditioned more 
especially by the second of the foregoing principles, and 
when formulated with regard thereto, it is so to humanize 
and sociaHze the individual that he may be prepared to 
live, to develop, and to attain the highest self-reaHzation 
under given social conditions. 

Such a statement of the aim of education with reference 
to the individual seems at first thought to fall short of that 
given by Kant, '^ There is within every man a divine ideal, 
the type after which he was created, the germs of a perfect 
person, and it is the office of education to favor and direct 
these germs in their development." Or, as defined by 
Pestalozzi, "The aim of education consists in developing, 
according to natural law, the child's various powers, moral, 
intellectual, and physical, with such subordination as is 
necessary to their perfect equihbrium." Or by Froebel, 
"By education, then, the divine essence of man should be 
unfolded, brought out, lifted into consciousness, and man 
himself raised into free, conscious obedience to the divine 
principle that fives in him, and to a free representation of 
this principle in his fife." Or by Spencer, "To prepare 
us for complete fiving is the function which education has 
to discharge." Phrases, however, like the development of 
"the germs of the perfect person," the unfolding of "the 
divine essence of man," "the harmonious and perfect 
development of the faculties," "complete fiving," when 
used apart from social relations, have fittle content. The 
only "perfect person" is the one in harmony with a given 
social pattern, the one whose life is fashioned to given social 
standards; "mental faculties" are not developed independ- 
ent of use and, consequently, apart from specific social 



174 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

demands, there is no "development and perfection of facul- 
ties"; and "complete living" results alone from life 
perfectly adjusted to given social situations. The real 
meaning of these definitions of the masters therefore 
only becomes apparent when they are brought into 
relations to a given social life. Consequently, our defini- 
tion does not fall so far short in idealism; neither is it 
crass nor materialistic, but as idealistic as the facts and 
conditions of human existence will permit. 

By thus recognizing social conditions as the dominant 
factor in determining the life for which the child is to be 
prepared, it must be admitted that his capacity for life 
and development is to a certain extent ignored. But it 
matters not to education, in a sense, what ability the 
child may have; the only life for which it can prepare 
him is that approved by the nation supporting the given 
schools. Still, since the Hfe which the individual is able 
to enjoy, notwithstanding he may have capacity for higher 
development, is conditioned by the society of which he is 
a member, that education which seeks to fit him for life 
as sanctioned by the nation sustaining the given schools 
is the education which prepares him on the whole for 
the highest development and self-realization attainable by 
him. 

The working aim of education, from the side of the indi- 
vidual, will change therefore with every considerable varia- 
tion in national conditions. It will be one thing in the 
United States, another in England, and still another in 
Russia; and by reason of the differences in the ends sought, 
the results of the educative process will in no two nations 
be the same. The individual, when educated in accord 
with a given aim, will be prepared for life in the society of 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 175 

which he is a part, but will not be equally well fitted to 
become a member of another nation. 

The individuaHstic aim of education may be rendered 
somewhat more concrete, if stated in terms of the last 
four of the foregoing principles and in view of the relation 
between the psychical nature of the individual and the 
phases of social life. 

The different phases of society are the resultant of one 
or more of the primal impulses as these have found expres- 
sion under the guidance of the intellect, the industrial 
phase arising primarily from the expression and determina- 
tion of the impulse of self-preservation, the social phase 
being the resultant of the impulse of race-preservation and 
of sociality, the artistic phase the outgrowth of the art 
impulse. Taken as a whole, these phases are but the 
objective expression in their developed forms of the will 
and intellectual Hfe of individuals, and represent the highest 
actualization of their psychical nature under given social 
conditions. Society in its different phases and the will 
and intellectual capacities of the individual are conse- 
quently not opposed to each other. The phases of social 
life can be interpreted only when read backward into 
terms of the will and intellectual capacities of the individual, 
and these can be interpreted only when read forward into 
terms of the different phases of social life. 

From this vantage ground, the aim of education from 
the side of the individual may be said to be so to develop 
his intellect, through bringing him to accept such ideals 
of Hfe and through supplying him with such knowledge 
of means, that he is able to give that expression, control, 
and direction to his primal impulse requisite to enable him 
to participate in the different phases of the hfe of the 



176 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

nation of which he is a member, to enjoy Hfe therein, and 
to attain under the given national conditions the highest 
development and self-reaHzation possible to him. 

3. Unity in Aim. — The aims of education, as thus 
formulated from the side of the individual and of society, 
appear to be somewhat contradictory. By reason of the 
reciprocal relation between the individual and society, 
and by reason of the first two of the foregoing principles, 
the social and individualistic aims of education cannot be 
in opposition. For each impKcitly includes the other, 
though in a given formulation this may not be apparent. 
The foregoing related — though one-sided — statements 
may therefore be thus drawn together: The aim of any 
school system is to provide for the existence, the develop- 
ment, and the perfection of the nation supporting the given 
system of education, through transmitting to its on-coming 
members such knowledge of means and ideals and through 
giving such expression and determination to the will that 
they are fitted to participate in the hfe of the given nation 
and to contribute to the continuation, development, and 
perfection of each of its phases, and are thereby prepared 
for the highest mode of life, the highest development and 
self-realization possible to them under the given national 
conditions. 

§ 4. The Aim of Elementary Education 

If this aim of education is to be accepted and is to be 
made the basis of school work, it remains, in view of our 
interests, to determine in the light thereof the aim of the 
elementary school. 

The function of a given school in a system, apart from 
the aim of the system as a whole, is conditioned by three 



AIM OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 177 

factors: by the capacity of its pupils, by the length of the 
period devoted to its work, and by whether its students 
will receive further school education. 

The elementary school period extends with us from the 
sixth to the fourteenth year inclusive. During this period 
the child is immature and his capacities are relatively 
undeveloped. For all save approximately five per cent, 
the elementary school is the only one attended, as under 
present economic conditions the school life of all but the 
more favored few must culminate with the attainment of 
that physical strength enabUng them to join the ranks 
of the wage-earners. 

In view of these limiting conditions and the object 
of our system as a whole, the aim of the elementary school 
is to provide primarily for the continuation in its common 
and basic features and secondarily for the progressive 
development of the social and national Hfe of the American 
people. To fulfill its primary function, the elementary 
school must so prepare the on-coming generation as to 
enable it to enter into and make its own the common modes 
and standards of Hfe sanctioned by our social order. To 
fulfill its secondary function, it must so prepare the indi- 
vidual that he is at least able to appreciate and to adjust 
himself to whatever fundamental changes there may occur 
in our national Ufe during his time. The service of the 
elementary school in relation to social improvement is a 
passive one. For, owing to the Hmitations imposed upon 
the elementary school, though it can so prepare the indi- 
vidual as to enable him to appreciate and to adjust him- 
self to social improvement, it cannot as a rule equip him 
to become an active agent in the initiation of social reform. 
Nevertheless, the service of the elementary school in this 



178 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

respect is important, as it provides for social plasticity 
and the approval of the many — the prime condition of 
social development. 

In the fulfillment of the function of the elementary school, 
there is impKed the transmission to the on-coming genera- 
tion of those ideals and of that knowledge of means essential 
to the preservation, in their fundamental features, of the 
industrial, the social, the intellectual, the artistic, and the 
moral-religious phases of American hfe as now constituted, 
and essential to a full, rich, individual life as determined 
thereby. There is implied, also, the bringing of the on- 
coming generation to accept the ideals and the knowledge 
of means transmitted, and teaching it how to use these in 
giving the will such expression, control, and direction that 
action is brought into conformity to present social prac- 
tices and standards. There is imphed in addition the 
giving to the rising generation that insight into and that 
skill in the use of the tools of learning necessary to render 
accessible the realm of general knowledge, for it is the 
glory of our democracy that it gives every man, notwith- 
standing his early hfe and advantages, an opportunity — 
within the limits sanctioned — to become whatever he may 
desire, and a command of the tools of learning is essential 
to open the way. Finally, there is imphed the fostering of 
those habits of mind and those modes of thought conducive 
to toleration and open-mindedness, the prerequisites of pro- 
gressive social adaptability. There is implied, in short, in 
the fulfillment of the function of the elementary school the 
giving of that education essential for all to have — whatever 
their educational destination or future occupation — in order 
to provide for the preservation and the continuation in their 
basic features, of all the phases of our national hfe. 



AIM OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 179 

Statistics show that those enjoying only an elementary 
education occupy, in the main, the more humble positions 
in our social order and pursue the more ordinary occupa- 
tions, such as farming or factory work. For this reason, 
the opinion has arisen that the elementary school should 
minister directly to the practical needs of the ^'working 
classes" and prepare indirectly, if not directly, for the 
more common occupations of life. Even though those 
completing their school education in the elementary school 
do constitute the humbler classes, and do fill the ranks 
of unskilled and non-professional labor, this is no final 
argument why our elementary school should be made a 
*' trade school." Trade school or vocational training is 
essentially secondary education, and should be built upon 
or follow the work of the elementary school. 

In view, however, of its function, elementary education 
must be intensely practical, touching life at the point of 
greatest need. By reason of the relative importance of 
the industrial phase of social life and of the worth to the 
individual of being able to make a living, the elementary 
school must give large place to those branches of study and 
to those activities having an industrial bearing, while 
special courses of a decidedly practical character may well 
be provided for children of limited capacity, or behind 
their grade, who are looking toward early entrance upon 
life-pursuit. Yet the elementary school can know no 
"class" or "trade" as such; it can minister only to social 
needs and to the need of the citizen, and the citizen is more 
than the position occupied and the "trade" followed by 
the man: the citizen is one who must accept as his own 
the common standards and modes of life approved by our 
social order and be a conservator of our national fife as a 



i8o PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

whole. Such an education fits the individual at least 
indirectly for the ordinary occupations, even though its 
primary object is so to prepare him that he may become a 
conservator of the Kf e of the American people in its common 
and fundamental features, and as a member of the American 
democracy Hve the fullest individual life possible to him 
under the given social conditions. 

Readings 

Monroe, History of Education, pp. 1 7 ff . 

Butler, The Meaning of Education, pp. 3-34. 

Dewey, Ethical Principles Underlying Education, pp. 7-13. 

The School and Society, pp. 19-20. 
Howerth, Fifth Year Book National Herhartian Societyy pp. 75-85. 
O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, pp. 93-98, 1 18-132. 
Home, The Philosophy of Education, pp. 150-173. 
Fairbank, Introduction to Sociology, pp. 135-148. 
Eliot, Educational Reform, pp. 401-418. 
King, Social Aspects of Education, pp. 6-23, 206-235. 
Betts, Social Principles of Education, pp. 32-94. 
Davenport, Education for Efficiency, pp. 11-36. 
Cubberley, Changing Conceptions of Education. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE CURRICULUM OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

1 . Education is a function of society^ and the educatioftal 
system of a given society must be such as will provide for its 
existence, development, and perfection. 

2. That system of education which provides for the exist- 
ence, development, and perfection of a given society is at the 
same time the system which will provide for the highest mode 
of life, the highest development and self-realization of its 
members. 

3 . The giving of appropriate expression, control, and direc- 
tion to the will, or the development of the will, constitutes the 
primary work of education, — tJie end to which every phase of 
it must be subordinated. 

4. The development of the intellect is the secondary work of 
education, and the intellect must be so developed with respect 
to both form and content and only so developed as to give to 
the will the necessary expression and the desired determination. 

5. Education must seek in each period of child life, to give 
to tlte will that expression, control, and direction, and to the 
intellect that form and content appropriate to the development 
of tlie distinctive will and intellectual characteristics of tJie 
period, appropriate to secure a normal will and intellectual 
development in the succeeding one, and appropriate to secure 
the will and intellectual development desired. 

6. Education must seek to lead the child, in each period of 



i82 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

life, to acquire such experience, to direct him in working this 
over into such knowledge, and to guide him in making such 
use of this knowledge as will give to the will and to the intellect 
a development appropriate to the period, appropriate to 
secure a normal will and intellectual development in the 
succeeding one, and appropriate to secure the will and intel- 
lectual development desired. 

§ I. The Problem 

The means through which the aim of education is 
realized are instruction and school organization. 

Under the former are to be included the materials to 
be presented, or the curriculum, and methods of instruction. 
If we turn to the curriculum, our problem may be stated 
thus: In view of the above principles and the aim of 
elementary education, in what ways do the two factors — 
the ends and interests of which are conserved through the 
educative process — enter in to determine the curriculum 
of the elementary school? 

§ 2. The Materials of the Curriculum 

The objective factors of social Hfe were found to be: 
natural science, social science, literature, art, and religion. 
We also learned that, without these factors in some form 
or other, society neither exists nor develops. On the 
other hand, it was found, in studying the individual, that 
his development presupposes materials of culture. Upon 
examination, the materials of culture necessary to the devel- 
opment of the individual were found to be the objective 
factors implied in the existence and development of society. 
The inference to be drawn is, if education is to conserve 
both the interests of the individual and society, these 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 183 

objective factors must constitute the subject-matter of 
instruction or the materials of the curriculum. 

§ 3. Factors Determining the Curriculum 

Although the so-called objective factors are essential to 
the continuation and improvement of the social order and 
condition the development of the individual, all parts of 
these as now known are not equally essential. Even if 
they were, the child has neither the capacity nor the time 
to master them. There is need, therefore, from the point 
of view of the elementary school, to select from this world 
of possible material those aspects to be included within 
the curriculum. The doing of this necessitates fixing upon 
the conditioning factors and upon how each enters in to 
determine a given course of study. These factors are the 
life of society and of the child. 

§ 4. Determination of Elementary School Curric- 
ulum BY Society 

I . Determination by Given Society as a Whole. — A given 
society or nation, in view more especially of the first of 
the above principles and in view of the aim of elementary 
education, makes this claim upon the curriculum of the 
elementary school: Its course of study must contain 
those aspects of the objective factors which will provide 
most economically and effectually for the continuation, in 
its basic features, of each of the phases of the given national 
life. 

This claim serves, first, as the basis for determining the 
range of studies to be included within the curriculum. 
Each phase of social life presupposes, as we have seen, 
one or more of the objective factors: the industrial, resting 



i84 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

in particular upon natural science; the social, upon social 
science; the artistic, upon art; and the moral-religious, 
upon ethics and rehgion. Elementary education has as 
its aim not the preservation of one or two phases of social 
life, but the preservation, in their fundamental features, 
of all its phases. In consequence, there must be included 
within the curriculum of the elementary school aspects of 
each of the objective factors. That is, there must be 
included, in some form or other, natural science, social 
science, Kterature, art, and religion. The omission of any 
one or more of these elements, as is too often the case, 
militates materially against the elementary school fulfilling 
its function. All of these elements are essential, if the 
elementary school is to do all that it should do. 

This claim serves, second, as the basis for determining 
the particular studies to be included. Mathematics, as 
a part of natural science, comprises arithmetic, algebra, 
geometry, trigonometry, calculus, etc. History, as a 
branch of social science, includes the story of all nations — 
ancient, mediaeval, and modern. Under language — a 
phase of literature — is to be brought the medium of oral 
expression of all Hving peoples, as well as of many extinct. 
Yet what mathematics, what history, what language, 
what Kterature, what art shall be selected as materials of 
elementary school instruction? 

The individual, with his particular capacities, likes, and 
dislikes, cannot serve as the determining basis. For, if a 
study is regarded as the medium of bringing the child to 
the appreciation of given ideals or to an appreciation of a 
given knowledge of means, or both, the ground of deciding 
whether these ideals or this knowledge of means is of worth 
is not in the life of the individual, but in the life of the 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 185 

given social order of which he is a member. Neither does 
culture nor the so-called 'MiscipHne of the mental faculties'' 
supply the needed basis. For culture and mental discipHne 
have meaning with reference to a given social situation 
only, and what is regarded as culture and discipHne by one 
nation may not be so regarded by another. On the side 
of culture and discipline, Greek, for example, is universally 
recognized as the language par excellence, but merely for 
this reason it cannot be included within the course of study 
of the elementary school. In short, there is no basis of 
determining what aspects of the different objective factors 
shall be admitted into the elementary school curriculum 
as subjects of study, other than the claim imposed by each 
phase of the given national Hfe. 

When the curriculum of our elementary school is deter- 
mined in view of this claim, it must at least include of 
natural science: physics, chemistry, botany, and zoology — 
elementary science — (with special reference to conserva- 
tion and production), hygiene and sanitation, geography 
(especially that of the United States), domestic science, 
manual training, and arithmetic; of social science: United 
States history; of Hterature: English language, hterature 
(especially American), and writing; of art: music and 
drawing; of reHgion: ethics (especially American institu- 
tions and standards). The right of any one or of all of 
these studies to a place in our elementary school depends 
upon the extent to which it embodies ideals or knowledge 
of processes and means essential to the preservation, in 
their basic features, of one or more of the phases of our 
national hfe. United States history, for example, has a 
place because it acquaints the child with the movements 
which have brought about our social order and with the 



i86 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

principles and ideals underlying it. The child is thereby 
prepared to act intelligently in the present and to do his 
part in the continuation of our democracy. In a similar 
way, the right or the lack of right of each of the above 
branches of study to a place in the curriculum may be 
determined. 

To admit given studies into the curriculum of the 
elementary school in view of the claim imposed by national 
life, determines the elementary course of study in a general 
way only. For, during the last few decades, the develop- 
ment of materials that may be included within the studies 
of the elementary school has been wonderful. Not only 
have there been additions to literature, but the hterature 
of the world has, within the last quarter of a century, 
been rewritten from the point of view of the child and 
brought within the range of his understanding. Similarly 
with history: Not only has the story of all nations been 
retold with a view to the interests of the child, but each 
nation is adding day by day to history. Likewise with 
geography: Volumes have been written in late years 
upon land forms, climate, and geographic influences; new 
industries have come into being, new Hnes of travel and 
commerce developed, all adding to the possible subject- 
matter of the study. Similarly with music: Fifty years 
ago, there was Httle music adapted to the abiHty and 
appreciation of the child, whereas today there is an 
abundance of such music. 

This increase in knowledge and the impossibility of 
teaching all that might be brought into the studies of the 
elementary school have led to three convictions: 

First, we have come to see that the studies of the ele- 
mentary school cannot be regarded as sciences. To view 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 187 

a study as a science is to include within it, apart from 
whatever practical value this may have, all information be- 
longing to the given line of investigation. For example, 
geography, as a science, comprises all knowledge having to 
do with the earth in relation to man; arithmetic, all that 
has to do with number in appHcation to measurement. 
The history of the United States, as told by Avery, com- 
prises sixteen large volumes. In short, the increase of 
knowledge has forced the teacher from viewing the studies 
of the school as sciences and laid upon her the necessity 
of selecting from the possible materials that which is to 
be taught in a given subject. 

Second, we have come to see that the studies of the 
school are not static, — the same today as yesterday, — 
but that there is constant change in their content. So 
great have these changes been that there is a radical 
difference between the three R's of today and of fifty 
years ago, between the history and geography of the 
present and of the early seventies. In a word, we have 
come to see that the studies of the elementary school 
change in respect to content with every considerable in- 
crease in knowledge and with every modification in the 
conditions controlHng the Hfe of the school. 

Third, it is evident that the studies of the school are but 
a means to an end. That is, they are not things of worth 
in themselves, but things to be used in the accomplishment 
of definite practical purposes. The test of instruction lies 
not in whether the child has acquired a specific amount of 
a given kind of knowledge, but whether he has been 
enabled through the study of a given branch to do certain 
specific things, — brought to act in certain desired ways. 

The increase m knowledge and the rise of these convic- 



i88 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

tions have rendered more important than ever before the 
question: Of the materials available, which shall be in- 
cluded within the studies of the school? 

In answering this question, it is important to distinguish 
fact from principle. A fact is something done, or that has 
come to pass, — an act, an event, an item, or circumstance, 
— whereas a principle is a large truth, an organizing idea, 
a conception, an ideal, or a belief that exercises general direc- 
tive influence upon life and conduct. The facts of a study 
are numberless. There are, for example, sixty-one thou- 
sand and more postoffices in the United States; the name 
and location of each might be learned as geography. The 
facts about the battle of Gettysburg alone fill a dozen 
volumes the size of an unabridged dictionary, all of which 
might be included in the study of United States history. 
There are some 450,000 words in the EngHsh language, 
each of which might be brought into the study of the 
parts of speech in grammar. On the other hand, the 
number of principles, interpretative and organizing ideas 
or ideals of life in a given study are relatively few. This is 
particularly true in such branches as arithmetic and 
grammar, and almost as true of Hterature, geography, and 
history. 

Principles are the valuable parts of any subject; for it 
is through these that facts or events are interpreted and 
organized, that our emotions and sentiments are perma- 
nently aroused and crystallized, that life is defined and 
action controlled and directed. From this point of view, 
facts are of importance and of value only in so far as they 
enable the child to gain insight into principles, and afford 
opportunity to gain control of these through appHcation 
and use. The facts of a study should not, however, be 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 189 

ignored nor their worth underestimated, as they bear the 
same relation to the right acquisition, to the understanding, 
and to the power to apply large ideas as the mining of 
quartz does to the getting of gold. Still, it is the principle, 
the belief, the ideal illustrated by the facts and not the 
facts in themselves that have value. 

In the selection of the materials to be included within a 
given branch, therefore, such facts and only such should be 
admitted as are on the one hand best suited to enable the 
child to acquire with ease and economy and on the other 
are needed to give command in use of the larger teach- 
ings of the subject. The test to be imposed upon every 
fact or set of facts before these are admitted into a study 
of the school is therefore this: Is this fact or set of facts 
necessary to the ready understanding and control of a 
principle or ideal belonging to this subject and at the same 
time, of all the possible facts, the best adapted to yield 
such insight and power? 

Though there are relatively few large truths in any study, 
the form these truths take varies, as the same principle 
or ideal finds expression in a variety of ways. The central 
idea, for example, in Hawthorne's ''The Great Stone Face" 
is: We become what we strive to become. This is also 
the commanding idea in "The Blue Bell," by Van Dyke, 
in ''How Cedric Became a Knight," and is practically the 
thought of Longfellow's "Excelsior" and Lowell's "Long- 
ing," as well as of other selections. Likewise in arithmetic: 
Whenever two elements of an arithmetical problem are 
given, the third may be found, and this is true whether in 
whole numbers, fractions, or in percentage and its appHca- 
tions. Similarly, the noun idea is basic in the conception 
of the substantive infinitive, substantive phrase, and 



igo PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

substantive clause, but the form the idea takes differs in 
each case. In history, relatively the same experiences are 
repeated in the exploration and settlement of the different 
sections west of the Alleghany Mountains; to know Daniel 
Boone and the settlement of Kentucky is consequently 
to know the pioneers and early history of other states. 
Different men typify the same ideas and standards of 
courage and honesty, so to know William Lloyd Garrison 
is to know all abolitionists. The same development is 
repeated again and again in different sections, and for this 
reason the history of transportation is everywhere essentially 
similar. Likewise in geography: The Atlantic coast and 
coastal plain are typical in their geographic significance of all 
coasts and coastal plains, and the Mississippi River system 
is typical of all rivers. Dairying as carried on in Southern 
Wisconsin is representative of dairying in other sections; 
so also fruit growing in New York, lumbering in Michigan, 
gold mining in CaHfornia, coal mining in Pennsylvania, and 
steel making in Cleveland are typical industries. To admit 
into a study all the different expressions of a process, a 
principle, an idea, or an ideal is consequently to multiply 
detail and add confusion and complexity. 

The further test that must be imposed upon the ma- 
terials to be admitted into the studies of the school, then, 
is this: Is the expression of a given process, principle, or 
large idea representative, is it typical, and is the admission 
of this particular typical expression necessary to the full 
understanding and command of the process, principle, or 
ideal in question? To impose this test with a heavy hand 
upon the subject-matter of instruction would be to make 
large use of types, and to confine our attention to rich topics. 

Because a given set of facts is well adapted to the presen- 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 191 

tation of a process or principle, and because a given expres- 
sion is typical, is no final reason why it should be included 
in a given study. So limited is the elementary school 
period, so immature is the child, so pressing are the needs 
of present-day living, and so abundant are the larger 
teachings of the different school branches, when taken 
together, that there is need; of selecting with care, from 
the processes, principles, and ideals available, those to 
be included within the studies of the elementary school. 

It is in supplying the basis of this selection that the 
claim imposed by national life enters, in a third way, to 
determine the elementary course of study. For the final 
basis of selection is to be found in what it is essential that 
the child should know and should be able to accomplish in 
order to participate in each phase of our social life and do 
his part. 

The final test to be imposed upon the materials of ele- 
mentary instruction is therefore this: Is a knowledge and 
command of this process, principle, interpretative idea, 
or ideal essential to the preservation, in their fundamental 
features, of one or more phases of our national Hfe, or, put 
in other words, essential to prepare the child to make a 
living under present economic conditions; essential to pre- 
pare him to fulfill the obligations of the parent and to 
perform the duties of the citizen; or essential to prepare 
him for a rich personal life and a Hfe of rectitude in our social 
order? Though this test ignores studies as sciences, and 
all claims oi knowledge for the sake of knowledge, it recog- 
nizes that we are an industrial and commercial people and 
that the work the boys and girls now in our elementary 
schools will find to do will be in the lines of industry and 
trade; it recognizes also that there are domestic duties to 



192 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

be performed, complex problems in national, state, and 
municipal government to be solved, and that there are 
vital moral issues to be met both in the life of the individual 
and of the nation: 

The determination, in view of this test, of the processes, 
principles, ideals, or large topics to be included in the 
studies of our elementary school, sheds further hght upon 
the character of these branches. The language taught 
must be the EngHsh language; the Hterature read and 
studied must, to a large extent, be American Hterature; 
the penmanship taught cannot be the writing of Greek, or 
Hebrew, or Chinese — it must be the writing of EngKsh. 
Arithmetic must consist in the appHcation of number to 
business operations and industrial activities as we know 
and practice them. History cannot be general history, 
but the history of the United States; geography must be 
confined primarily to our national domain, and so with all 
other branches. In a word, the studies of our elementary 
school must be intensely American, that is, the materials 
or topics included must embody those ideals and that 
knowledge of means essential to making a living and to 
living well in our democracy. 

The admission of a topic into a study of the elementary 
curriculum does not, however, fix what is to be taught 
through it, or how the truth taught is to be appKed; in a 
word, it does not fix the use to be made of it. Take, for 
example, Lowell's ''Longing." As a theme in reading, it 
may be used as a formal exercise in oral expression, or to 
give knowledge of Lowell as a poet, or as a means of teaching 
the value and influence upon Ufe of noble thoughts and 
ideals. But which of these is the proper use can only be 
determined in view of the claim rested by social life in its 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 193 

entirety upon the elementary schooL Likewise, no topic 
carries within itself the determination of its relative place 
within a study. As arithmetical themes, there is nothing 
in interest or cube root to tell which is of the greater relative 
worth. This can be decided alone from without and more 
especially in view of the relation of the given topic to the 
fuhillment of the aim of elementary education. In short, 
it is the claim made by the phases of national life upon the 
curriculum of the elementary school that serves as the basis 
ior determining the final use or appHcation to be made of a 
topic and affixing its relative importance in a given subject 
of the elementary course of study. 

That the studies of the elementary school curriculum are 
not of equal worth is generally recognized. The grounds 
of this conclusion are, however, not to be found in the sub- 
jects themselves, nor in the above claim alone, but more 
especially in the relative importance, in the Hfe of a given 
social whole, of the phase or phases thereof, the needs and 
demands of which are met by a given study. 

Without entering into the implied argument, and pro- 
ceeding upon the principle that self-preservation is the first 
law of social as well as of individual Ufe, the relative value 
of the phases of society is about as follows: As phases of 
first importance are the industrial and the social, of second 
importance is the moral-rehgious, and of third, the intel- 
lectual and artistic. 

If such a distribution of values is accepted, those studies 
which contribute directly or indirectly to the preservation 
of the industrial and social phases are of first importance, 
those ministering to the preservation of the moral-religious 
of second importance, and those fostering the continuation 
of the intellectual and artistic of third importance. 



194 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

To summarize, the life of a given society or nation as a 
whole, by virtue of the claim it imposes, enters into the 
determination of the curriculum of the elementary school 
in that the needs and demands of the different phases of 
national life are the final factor in conditioning the range 
of studies, in conditioning the particular branches admitted, 
and the relative value assigned them; it also enters in as 
the final factor in conditioning the materials or topics to 
be included within each study, in conditioning the relative 
place of a topic within a particular branch, and the use to 
be made of the given topic. 

2. Determination by Given Community or Local Condi- 
tions. — A given community is a city, village, or rural settle- 
ment which forms an integral part of a larger social whole. 
As such, a given community is not a part of the social 
whole, like the spoke is of a wheel, the roof, of a house, the 
leaf, of a tree. It is rather an expression of the fundamental 
features of the life of the larger social order of which it is a 
part; it may be at the same time an expression of some one 
or more of these features in a particular form, and this 
special manifestation may differentiate the given commu- 
nity from all others. For example, Chicago, as a particular 
community, is a reproduction of the fundamental features 
of American life; particular emphasis is, however, given 
to certain aspects, and Chicago is famous for business. 
Boston likewise reproduces our national life, but there the 
cultural element finds special expression. 

The relation between national and local life is, however, 
a reciprocal one. National life does not exist apart from 
particular communities, and a given local life is impossible 
apart from a given nation. To illustrate, our national Kfe 
has no existence apart from communities like Boston, New 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 195 

York, Chicago, and in turn social life as found in such 
communities could not exist apart from our democracy. 
For the essential features of national life constitute the 
basic elements in local life, and the particular expression 
of national Hfe and . the emphasis of some aspect of it in 
the hfe of respective communities supply the variations 
essential to the highest national existence. 

By reason of the relation between the nation as a whole 
and separate component communities, if a given society 
is to be maintained in its fundamental features, and also 
in its fullness and richness, the basic aspects of each phase 
of the Hfe of the larger social whole must, on the one hand, 
find expression in the Hfe of each separate community, and, 
on the other, the particular manifestations of the larger 
social life distinctive of each community must be conserved 
in so far as these expressions are in accord with the general 
spirit and ends of the given national order. 

From the condition of maintaining national life and in 
view of the aim of elementary education, a given elementary 
school has a national and a local function, its national and 
primary function being to provide for the embodiment, in 
the Hfe of the given community, of the basic features of the 
different phases of the Hfe of the nation, and its local and 
secondary function being to provide, in so far as these are 
in conformity with the general principles of the social whole, 
for the preservation of the fundamental aspects of the 
particular expression of national Hfe as manifest in that 
of the given community. 

The dual function of the local elementary school makes 
two claims upon its curriculum. First and primarily, 
its course of study must contain those ideals and that 
knowledge of means essential to embody, in the Hfe of the 



196 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

given community, the fundamental features of each phase of 
the life of the nation. Second and secondarily, its course 
of study must contain those ideals and that knowledge of 
means essential to the preservation, in their basic aspects, 
of the particular and approved variations of national Hfe 
as manifest in the given locality. 

The first and primary claim registered against the cur- 
riculum of the local elementary school, it will be observed, 
is but the claim made upon the elementary course of 
study by society as a whole, formulated with reference to 
local conditions. 

Life in no two communities is exactly alike. Differences 
in the personnel of citizenship exist. The people in one 
community are American born and bred, in another, they 
are to a greater or less extent foreigners. The chief industry 
in one community may be farming, in another, manufactur- 
ing, in still another, coal mining. These differences in 
citizenship and occupation act to modify the expression 
in a particular community of the basic features of our 
national hfe. In one place the morals may be below 
standard, in another, intelligence, or modes of social inter- 
course, or artistic taste. 

Notwithstanding these differences in community life, 
local conditions have nothing to do with determining the 
range of studies or with determining the particular branches 
admitted into the curriculum of the local schools, in view 
of the primary claim registered against it. For the range 
of studies and the branches best adapted to provide for the 
existence in its general features of the larger social order 
are at the same time those best adapted to embody, in the 
Ufe of the given community, the basic elements of the given 
national life. 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 197 

The same may be said with respect to the selection of 
topics witliin the studies admitted in view of this primary 
claim. These must be selected alone with regard to the 
needs of the nation as a whole, and not with reference to 
those of the given community. 

When it comes, however, to determining the relative 
importance of topics within a subject and to fixing upon the 
final use of these, this cannot be done alone in view of 
the needs of the larger social Hfe. For, in the embodiment 
of the essential characteristics of the Hfe of the nation in 
that of a given community, local conditions must be taken 
into consideration. To illustrate, in a settlement where 
American Hfe is at its best and where the on-coming genera- 
tion breathes in its spirit from birth, those topics of history 
and civics shedding Kght upon the principles and spirit of 
American institutions need not be given the same impor- 
tance as in a community composed in large part of 
foreigners, who are more or less ignorant of American life 
and its principles. Likewise, in the determination of the 
final use to be made of a topic, the special need or deficiency 
in local Hfe, as judged by national standards, must be taken 
into account. To be sure, the ultimate end to be attained 
through the study of the given topic is set by the social 
whole, yet the particular use to be made, the particular 
application to be given, is conditioned by hfe as found in 
the given community. That is, if the elementary school 
of a given community is to accomplish its aim with reference 
to the Hfe of the nation, the treatment and use of a topic 
— say, cleanliness — must necessarily differ in an industrial 
center, in a crowded tenement section, and in an agricultural 
district. 

Local conditions are also a factor in determining the 



198 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

relative value of the studies admitted in view of this first 
claim. For, if the elementary school is to accompHsh 
its primary function, language, history, and civics, for 
example, must be assigned greater value in a locality con- 
taining a large foreign element than in a community com- 
posed of native born Americans. Similarly, literature and 
art must be given a larger place in a locality grossly 
materialistic than in one highly artistic and spiritual, 
manual training and drawing must receive greater em- 
phasis in an industrial than in an agricultural centre. 

That part of the curriculum of the elementary school 
determined in view of the first claim imposed upon it, or 
in view of the needs of national life, may be characterized 
as the primary portion, and in its determination the life 
of the given community thus enters in as a secondary factor 
in conditioning the relative place and the use to be made 
of the topics included within the different studies and in 
conditioning the relative value of the several branches. The 
degree, however, to which even this is true depends upon 
the extent to which local conditions must be taken into 
account, if the elementary school of the given community 
is to fulfill its national or primary function. 

On the other hand, in the determination of the course 
of study of the elementary school in view of the second 
claim imposed upon it, it is the interests and the needs of 
the given conomunity that become of first importance. To 
be sure, no feature of social life can be fostered unless this 
is in conformity with the general principles and spirit of 
the nation. Yet within the range of approved manifesta- 
tions, which of these shall be chosen by a given community 
to be preserved through the medium of its elementary 
school is conditioned by what aspects find particular expres- 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 199 

sion and come to constitute the special interest of the given 
community. This will vary; with one community it will 
be agriculture, with another, stock-raising, with another, 
coal mining, and so on through the range of hfe's needs and 
the catalogue of industry, trade, and commerce. 

It is in meeting particular local conditions that the ele- 
mentary school finds its local and secondary aim, and it is 
in view of the consequent claim upon the elementary course 
of study that the needs of the given community serve as 
the basis for the admission of studies, of the selection of 
topics to be included in these, of fixing the relative place 
and final use of the topics selected, and of determining 
the relative value of the subjects admitted. In short, in 
view of this second claim, the Hfe of the given community 
becomes the primary factor in determining what may be 
characterized as the secondary portion of the curriculum 
of the elementary school. 

The extent, however, to which this second claim may be 
taken into account is conditioned by the primary aim of 
elementary education, and it is only when the elementary 
school is in position to fulfill its national function, and then 
only, that the particular interests of the given community 
may be taken into account in the determination of the 
course of study. 

§ 5. Determination of the Elementary School 
Curriculum by the Child 

I. The Adaptation of the Curriculum. — In view of the 
last four of the above principles, the child has the following 
claim upon the curriculum of the elementary school: 
The curriculum must be so adjusted to the will and to the 
intellect, durmg each period of development, as to give to 



200 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

the intellect a normal form and content, and still a form and 
content adapted to the free expression of the will and ade- 
quate to the exercise of the desired control and direction. 

This claim impHes, on the one hand, the adjustment of 
the course of study to the elements of the will and to the 
mental capacities distinctive of the given period of child 
life. Opportunity must be given for the normal expression, 
of the will and the free exercise of the intellect, that the 
child may thereby be stimulated to develop according to 
his inherited tendencies. On the other hand, this claim 
implies control and direction, that is, such an adjustment of 
the course of study that the elements of the will are excited 
not only to spontaneous expression, but to expression in 
given ways. For, though the curriculum — in view of 
one phase of this claim — must follow the instincts and 
inclinations of the child, it must do this, in view of the other, 
that their expression may be controlled and directed. This 
guidance, coming from the way hereditary tendencies are 
stimulated to find expression in action, is not therefore 
something imposed from without, but arises from within, 
and because it comes from within, the child develops 
normally, yet in desired ways. 

In the adaptation of the curriculum there is therefore 
involved, on the side of the will, a knowledge of the impulses 
and instincts distinctive of each period of child Hfe, also a 
knowledge of their normal expression in action and of the 
expression which must be given to them in view of the 
desired will development. With respect to materials, 
there is presupposed not only a knowledge of the ideals and 
means appropriate to excite the impulses and instincts of 
the period to expression, but a knowledge of the ideals and 
means suited to supply the basis for exercising over them the 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 201 

desired control and direction. On the side of the intellect, 
there is imphcd insight into its natural form and content 
on each level of mental Hfe, and into the form and content 
that must be given it, also a knowledge of the materials 
appropriate to foster, in each period, a normal, yet desired 
development. 

To adapt the curriculum to the intellect and to adapt 
it to the will are, however, not two different things. By 
reason of the relation between the two, instruction adapted 
to give, at each period, the normal expression, yet desired 
determination to the will, is at the same time the instruction 
suited to give to the intellect its normal, yet needed, 
form and content. 

In the adaptation of the curriculum to the Hfe of the child, 
there are two signs that may be taken as guides. The 
immediate one is interest. Interest is a feeling of pleasure 
on the part of the learner in the information gained; it is, 
however, more especially a feehng that the given information 
has worth to the self as the medium of reveaHng new 
ideals or of supplying the means of attaining cherished ends. 
As a feeling of worth and as the immediate sign of adjust- 
ment, interest has great value, and its absence on the part 
of the child at any point may be taken as a signal of danger. 
Arising as it does out of so adjusting instruction to the will 
and intellectual Hfe of the period that each is given free 
expression, interest is at best but a by-product of the 
educative process. As a by-product, though a valuable 
one to foster, the excitation of interest should never be 
confused with the primary purpose of education — will 
and intellectual development. 

Nevertheless, it is at this point that the Herbartians err. 
Interest is exalted by them into an end, and the aim of 



202 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

instruction defined as the development of a many-sided 
interest. Interest, however, instead of being an end, is 
at best merely a sign that instruction is adapted to the 
accomplishment of its purpose. Consequently, to exalt 
interest into an end is to mistake the conditions out of 
which it arises and to give to it a false place and value in 
education. 

Though interest may be taken as the immediate sign of 
adjustment, it cannot be regarded as the final one. This 
is to be found in the acceptance by the child of the new ends 
or the new means presented, and in the use of these in 
controlHng and directing his activities. Consequently, if 
the child rejects the ends or ideals presented, or fails to 
use the new knowledge of means, the given instruction 
does not meet the needs of his life at the given time, — is 
not adapted to his needs. Use by the recipient in the 
expression, control, and direction of Hfe thus becomes the 
final test of adjustment, and it is therefore action or conduct 
in the Hght of or upon the basis of the information imparted 
that constitutes the ultimate sign of adaptation. 

2. Ways the Child Determines the Curriculum. — By 
making the foregoing claims upon the curriculum, the 
child becomes a factor in determining the form and 
character of instruction (that is, in conditioning the 
t3^e of materials that must be included in the course 
of study, the kind of words in which instruction is 
clothed, and the way it is presented). To illustrate, 
toward the age of six and thereabout, owing to the rising 
force of the intellectual impulse, the child becomes ex- 
ceedingly inquisitive. Because of his lack of permanent 
interests and of mental power, he is uninterested in and 
unable to grasp any systematic presentation of a subject. 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 203 

Nevertheless, by virtue of his needs and the resulting desire 
to know, and to act, he delights in fairy tales, legends, and 
stories. Because these appeal to him and supply materials 
for the free expression of his impulses and the free exercise 
of his intellectual capacities, these are suited to his instruc- 
tion, and some such materials must be used if the child is 
to be given a normal development at this time. At this 
age the constructive instinct also appears, and the child 
finds pleasure in making things. Because of his lack of 
intelligence and skill, he is unable to understand and to 
undertake any difficult construction. Yet he appreciates 
and is able to do simple tasks. Consequently, such exer- 
cises must be employed, if the materials of instruction are to 
appeal to the child and be suited to this aspect and stage 
of his development. Likewise, in all periods, whether in 
infancy, childhood, or youth, the psychical needs arising 
from the impulsive and intellectual Hfe of the child enter 
in to condition the form and character of the subject-matter 
to be used and therefore to be included within the 
curriculum. 

It is but a corollary of tliis to say it is the conditions 
imposed by the above claim, or the needs of child life at 
different periods of development, that supply the basis of 
determining the way in which the materials of instruction 
are distributed within the different branches and the course 
of study. For example, there is nothing in Hterature, as 
such, which impels the reading of Mother Goose Rhymes 
or the Hke before the study of '' The Great Stone Face." 
The necessity arises from the needs and limitations of 
the learner. 

Since the child develops normally only as the impulses 
of a period are excited to expression and the intellect exer- 



204 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

cised in a way to give these appropriate control and direction 
in action, to employ the materials of instruction to this end 
is the use that must be made of them at the given time. 
To illustrate — fairy tales, legends, and stories, as a general 
thing, embody a moral and may be used to teach morals. 
However, the need of the child, when he is the most 
interested in these, is not moral instruction, but an 
opportunity to satisfy his curiosity and to exercise on 
materials within the range of his appreciation the rising 
powers of his intellect. To the satisfaction of these psy- 
chical needs, fairy tales, legends, and stories must be 
employed at this time, if they are to be truly educative. 
The child may, to be sure, discover later that in learning 
these he was becoming acquainted with a portion of world 
literature, and he may also discover that in these are 
embodied many of the principles of individual and social 
life. Yet bringing the child to the consciousness of this 
at the time these are particularly appropriate, constitutes 
no part of their use. Likewise with the ear Her constructive 
exercises. The need of the child, when constructive 
exercises are most suitable, is activity, and they afford 
such opportunity; when this is done, they have served 
their immediate purpose. True, the child may learn later 
that these exercises were illustrative of the typical indus- 
tries of life, but to make him conscious of this forms no 
part of their use in this earhest period of formal education. 
In like manner throughout all stages of education, the use 
to be made of the subject-matter of instruction at a given 
time is conditioned by that which must be made in order 
to give to the impulsive and intellectual hfe of the child 
the development appropriate to the given period. 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 205 

§ 6. The Determination of the Elementary School 
Curriculum by Society Versus its Deter- 
mination BY the Child 

If we maintain that the needs of national and local life 
are the final factors in the determination of the curriculum 
of the elementary school with reference to the range of 
branches, with respect to the particular studies admitted, 
and to the relative value assigned them, also the final factor 
in conditioning the topics included within each study and 
in determining the relative importance in a branch and in 
the final use to be made of a topic, and yet hold that the 
needs of child Hfe are a factor in conditioning the form 
and type of materials included, in determining how they 
shall be distributed, and what use shall be made of them 
at a given time, it appears as if we had involved ourselves 
in a contradiction, for the determining of the elementary 
course of study by society in the ways suggested seems to 
preclude its determination by the child as indicated, and 
vice versa. 

I . Determining Claims Supplementary. — From the rela- 
tion existing between the individual and society, the claims 
made upon the curriculum of the elementary school by 
national life and those registered against it by child life 
cannot be contradictory. Those imposed by the social 
order represent the end of the educative process — the 
knowledge of ideals and of means, the habits and skill that 
will be useful in adult life under the given social conditions; 
those imposed by the child represent what is necessary to 
interest him, to excite him to want to act and to know. The 
latter have to do with what is essential to encourage and 
foster his development, the former with what is necessary 



2o6 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

to control and direct this in view of social ends. The 
determination of the elementary course of study from the 
side of society does not, therefore, preclude that from the 
side of the child, but its determination from both points 
of view is necessary, as each supplements the other. 

2. Application of Claims Simultaneous. — From the 
supplementary character of the claims imposed by society 
and by the child upon the curriculum of the elementary 
school, it is apparent that these claims cannot be considered 
apart and the elementary course of study conditioned with 
respect to the one and then with respect to the other. It 
is necessary to keep both in mind and to give due place 
and weight to each in the determination of its every portion. 
That is, both the needs of society and of the child must be 
considered simultaneously in fixing upon its every part. 
When thus determined, the elementary school curriculum 
supplies not only the basis for interpreting the life of the 
child, and the means of fostering his development, but also 
the means of controlling and directing this in view of the 
needs of the community and of the nation. 

3. Character of an Elementary School Study. — From 
the factors entering in simultaneously and at every point 
to determine, in the ways indicated, the elementary cur- 
riculum, an elementary school study is, as suggested above, 
different from the given subject as a science. As a school 
study, a given branch — apart from what it may compre- 
hend as a science — may include only those ideals of hfe 
and that knowledge of means most conducive to the 
appreciation and the living of life under given social 
conditions, and furthermore, these ideals of life and this 
knowledge of means must be embodied in such form, clothed 
in such words, and so distributed as to meet, on the one 



CURRICULUM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 207 

hand, the needs of the developing child and to conserve, 

on the other, the special ends of education. Consequently, 

to know a subject as a science does not imply that it is known 

as an elementary school study, since to know it as such 

presupposes that it is known, as it is conditioned at every 

point by the supplementary factors entering into the 

determination of the elementary school curriculum as a 

whole. 

Readings 

Dewey, The School and Society, pp. 1-44. 

Ethical Principles Underlying Education, pp. 18-26. 

The Child and the Ciirriculum. 
McMurry, F., Report of N. E. A., 1904, pp. 194-202. 
Dutton, Social Phases of Education, pp. 89-117. 
Harris, Report of N. E. A., 1896, pp. 287-298. 
McMurry, C, Elements of General Methods, pp. 20-83. 
Depp, Report of N. E. A., 1904, pp. 437-443; also 1908, pp. 746-751. 
Eliot, Educational Reforni, pp. 253-269. 
Chancellor, Our Schools, pp. 275-283. 
Earhart, Types of Teaching, pp, 1-15. 
Betts, Social Principles of Education, pp. 231-290. 
Davenport, Education for Efficiency, pp. 90-120. 



CHAPTER VIII 
METHODS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 

1. Education must seek to lead the child in each period of life 
to acquire such experience, to direct him in working this over 
into such knowledge, and to guide him in making such use 
of this as will give to the will and to the intellect a development 
appropriate to the period, appropriate to secure a normal will 
and intellectual development in the succeeding one, and appro- 
priate to secure the will and intellectual development desired. 

2. In leading the child to acquire an essentially new experi- 
ence, in directing him in working this over into an essentially 
new concrete idea or ideas, and in guiding him in the use of 
this essentially new knowledge, procedure must conform to the 
movements and characteristics of thought as manifest in the 
inductive perceptual process of learning. 

3. In leading the child to acquire an essentially new experi- 
ence or group of experiences, in directing him in working this 
over into an individual or essentially new class concept, and 
in guiding him in the use of this essentially new knowledge, 
procedure must conform to the movements and characteristics 
of thought as manifest in the inductive conceptual process of 
learning. 

4. In leading the child to acquire a new experience, in direct- 
ing him in working this over into a new concrete idea or ideas, 
and in guiding him in the use of this new knowledge, procedure 
must conform to the movements and characteristics of thought 
as manifest in the deductive perceptual process of learning. 

5. In leading the child to acquire a new experience or group 
of experiences, in directing him in working this over into a 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 209 

particular or new class concept, and in guiding hiin in the use 
of this nciv knowledge, procedure must conform to the movements 
and characteristics of thought as manifest in the deductive 
conceptual process of learning. 

§ I. The Problem 

The curriculum of the elementary school comprises a 
definite body of knowledge which the child must make his 
own and use in given ways, if the school is to accomplish 
its ' purpose. The acquisition of this knowledge and the 
making use of it involves on the part of the child the 
exercise of the learning processes and on the part of 
the teacher the employment of methods of instruction. 
Methods of instruction, in view of the above principles, are 
conditioned by the learning processes. To understand 
the methods of instruction applicable in elementary educa- 
tion, it is necessary to study these methods as determined 
by the learning processes active during the elementary 
school period. 

If these methods are designated in terms of the particular 
conditioning process, they are the inductive perceptual, 
and inductive conceptual, the deductive perceptual, and 
deductive conceptual methods of instruction. 

§ 2. The Inductive Perceptual Method of 
Instruction ^ 

The inductive perceptual method of instruction rests 
upon the second of the above principles and arises from 

^ It will add to the case with which this chapter is understood, if the 
learning processes and the characteristics and movements of thought within 
them as treated in Chapters IV and V are reviewed in the proper connection, 
and if one or more of the corresponding illustrative lessons of Chapter IX 
are carried as illustrations. 



2IO PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

conforming procedure in teaching to the movements and 
characteristics of thought as manifest in the inductive 
perceptual process of learning. 

I. The Development of Motive and Statement of Aim. — 
Instruction, conforming to the first step of this process, 
seeks in its corresponding step to bring the child to the 
consciousness of a need which he will feel constrained to 
satisfy, and to bring him to appreciate that a given concrete 
difficulty — the overcoming of which implies on his part 
the acquisition and use of an essentially new concrete idea 
or thought whole — stands in the way and must be resolved, 
if he would satisfy the given need. In short, effort is made 
to develop a motive for the given process of inductive 
perceptual learning and to fix the point to be attained 
through this process. 

The motive for this may be developed and the point 
to be attained through it may be fixed in two ways. First, 
advantage may be taken of an instinctive need which at 
the given time is demanding satisfaction. Through giving 
the child opportunity to gratify this instinctive need, he 
may be led to find out for himself the difficulty to be over- 
come, and discovering this for himself, he appreciates to 
the full the motive for thought and its purpose. This 
mode of procedure represents the highest type of instruction 
and is the ideal toward which the teacher should strive. 
The second mode of procedure is, however, of scarcely less 
educational importance and does not differ fundamentally 
from the first. In pursuance of this method, the teacher 
stimulates the sense of a given need and excites the desire 
to satisfy it. The child impelled by this is then brought 
face to face with the thing to be constructed, the problem 
to be solved, or the question to be answered, and is led to 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 211 

see that he must accomplish the task presented, if he would 
gratify his desire. 

The means to be employed in this step of inductive 
perceptual instruction are varied, and may include the use 
of past experience, well-put questions, short and pointed 
descriptions, the relating of selected portions of stories, and 
the use of pictures, objects, and the activities of children. 

When a motive has been developed and the purpose of 
the given process of inductive perceptual learning fixed, 
the conditions imposed upon teaching by the first thought 
movement of inductive perceptual learning have been 
fulfilled. But that children may have a guide in the sub- 
sequent steps of thought, and the teacher in the remaining 
steps of instruction, it is of importance to formulate the 
end to be attained. It ought to be clear, if the child has 
been made conscious of a need, made desirous of satisfying 
it, and brought to appreciate the concrete difficulty to be 
overcome, that he will be able of himself, as a rule, to state 
in his own words the aim of the given process of learning 
or of the given lesson. To be sure, the aim as stated by the 
child may at times be crude and in some respects wide of 
the mark, but a few well-put questions will generally suffice 
to bring it into working form. 

As guides to the teacher in directing pupils in stating the 
aim or in formulating it for them, the Herbartians have 
suggested certain criteria of a good aim. These are made 
applicable by them to its formulation at all times. They 
are, however, when taken as a whole, more particularly 
apphcable to primary instruction. These criteria are as 
follows: the aim must be concrete, that is, stated with 
reference to a particular difficulty, — a given problem, or 
story; it must be definite, that is, make clear the point to 



212 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

be solved, the end to be attained; and it must be brief 
and attractive, brevity adding to definiteness, and attrac- 
tiveness increasing interest in the intellectual task in hand. 

In view of the work of this step, there is implied, on the 
part of the teacher in doing it, a knowledge of the present 
instinctive needs of the child, a knowledge of the means 
to be employed and of how to use them in the excitation 
of a particular need, also a knowledge of the difficulty to 
be overcome and of the essentially new concrete idea or 
thought-whole that must be acquired and used by the child, 
if he is to satisfy the need excited. 

2. Step of Recall. — The next step in inductive perceptual 
instruction does not grow out of a movement of thought 
explicitly manifest in inductive perceptual learning, but 
out of one implicit therein. It is so-called essentially new 
experience that is given meaning and value through this 
process. An essentially new experience includes, as we 
have seen, old elements, and in so far as it contains these, 
it is worked over into knowledge through the deductive 
perceptual process of learning or in the light of concrete 
ideas previously attained. In conforming teaching to the 
movements and characteristics of thought as manifest in 
inductive perceptual learning, account must be taken of 
this implied operation of deductive perceptual thought, and 
place made for bringing to mind those concrete ideas in- 
volved in giving meaning and value to the essentially new 
experience in question or involved in the acquisition of the 
essentially new concrete idea or picture-whole sought. To 
make provision for and to do this is the work of the second 
step of inductive perceptual instruction. 

The following suggestions will be found helpful: Those 
concrete ideas or picture-wholes and those only are to be 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 



213 



brought to mind which will enable the child to give 
significance, with economy, to the given essentially new 
experience or to attain readily the essentially new concrete 
information desired. Since the purpose of this step is to 
prepare the child's mind for the acquisition of an essentially 
new concrete idea or idea-whole, it follows that no new 
instruction should be given in it. 

The particular methods applicable to the recall of the 
desired old concrete ideas vary with the conditions. This 
may be done at times through directed narration or descrip- 
tion on the part of the children, at other times through 
the use of questions, and at still others through well- 
pointed reviews. 

By virtue of what is to be accomplished, there is implied 
on the part of the teacher, a knowledge of the past experi- 
ences of the child, an analysis of the essentially new idea- 
whole to be gained with respect to the old ideas included 
therein, the fixing in mind of the old concrete or picture 
ideas to be brought to the child's mind, and a knowledge 
of the particular means to be used and of how to employ 
them in doing this. 

3. Step of Presentation. — The third step of inductive 
perceptual instruction has its basis in that movement of 
inductive perceptual learning characterized as the acquisi- 
tion of data. In conformity thereto, the teacher seeks to 
bring to the child the essentially new experiences to be 
given meaning and value, or to supply him with the sense 
materials impHed in gaining the essentially new concrete 
idea or ideas sought. Just what sense impressions are to 
be brought to the child is determined, of course, by the 
difficulty to be overcome, by the situation to be met, by 
the information desired, or by the aim or purpose of the 



214 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

given process of inductive perceptual learning which the 
teacher is seeking to induce and to carry to completion 
in the particular lesson. 

Various particular methods of presentation are employed. 
The first and most important are the direct ones of observa- 
tion and of experimentation, that is, imparting experience 
through leading the child to observe the construction, 
object, phenomenon, invention, product, process, person, 
or event in question, or through directing him in the per- 
formance of given measurements and operations. These 
particular methods are especially applicable in elementary 
school science, geography, hand-work, and arithmetic, and 
ought to be given the widest usage. Among indirect 
methods are to be included the use of pictures, models, 
maps, globes, and other representative materials, also 
narration, which may be employed in the presentation of 
myths, fables, legends, and stories; likewise description, 
to be used more especially in the earliest work in history 
and geography; and to these are to be added the book- 
method, that is, the use of books by the pupil as a means 
of obtaining facts. 

As guides in the use of both direct and indirect methods, 
the teacher should settle upon the sense qualities, aspects, 
or characteristics of the object, construction, or process 
to be observed, or upon the measurements to be performed 
and the data to be collected, or he should determine the 
points to be made through narration or description, or the 
facts to be gained by the child through study. He should 
also formulate the pivotal questions to be employed in 
directing study, observation, or experimentation. There 
is impHed too, on his part, an orderly arrangement of ma- 
terials and their presentation in the light of related past 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 215 

experiences; it is well also to make provision for frequent 
summaries of the qualities observed, points made, or of 
the facts presented. 

4. Step of Elaboration. — With the necessary sense 
quaHties or data presented and made real, instruction, 
conforming to the inductive perceptual process of learning, 
seeks to lead the child to separate from the given qualities 
or facts those of special importance, seeks to render his 
impressions of these more vivid, and to bring him to appre- 
ciate their meaning and value in the given connection. This 
may be done, on the one hand, through leading him to 
analyze the given data, through directing him in his search 
for casual likenesses and differences between the materials 
in question and the old ideas brought to mind, and through 
guiding him in giving significance to the former in view of 
recognized similarity to the latter; it may be done, on the 
other hand, through leading him to reflect upon the sig- 
nificance of those elements, the meaning and value of which 
cannot be determined in the light of the past experiences 
recalled. 

In the selection of the sense materials, the meaning and 
value of which are to be emphasized, the teacher may be 
guided partially by what it is necessary to select in order to 
bring the children to a mature appreciation of the given 
construction, object, or process of nature, or of the given 
myth, story, picture, or problem; he must be guided, how- 
ever, more especially by the particular needs and interests 
of the child at the given time, or by the special aim of the 
given lesson. In bringing out the meaning and value of 
the selected matter, in so far as this may be done most 
readily upon the basis of the old concrete ideas brought 
to mind, the child should be led to note those casual like- 



2i6 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

nesses and differences most helpful in the transfer of the 
meaning and value attached to the past experiences recalled; 
but to emphasize the fact that the likenesses and differences 
observed are essential comprises no part of inductive 
perceptual instruction. The same is true of those phases 
of significance brought out through constructive and 
creative thought. It is not the general elements of meaning 
and value that are to be developed, but those that will 
enable the child to appreciate in a concrete way the given 
construction, object, or story, or will enable him to attain 
the desired essentially new concrete thought-whole. 

The particular method of this step is that of the question 
and answer. For it is through the use of the thought- 
provoking, problem-setting question that the child's atten- 
tion may be concentrated upon the desired quaUty or fact, 
that he may be led to make the desired comparisons, and 
to relate the experience under consideration to a similar 
past experience; it is likewise through the use of such 
questions that the problem may be set, the solution of which 
brings the child to the desired essentially new phases of 
meaning and value. 

Before undertaking the work of this step, the teacher 
should fix upon the elements of data the significance of 
which is to be especially emphasized, and should formulate 
the pivotal questions to be used in concentrating attention 
upon these parts. In so far as the given materials may be 
given meaning and value in view of casual similarity to 
past experiences or old concrete ideas, the teacher should 
decide on the comparisons to be made and upon the pivotal 
questions to be employed in suggesting and directing these 
comparisons; and in so far as its significance must be devel- 
oped through leading the child to creative thought, the 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 217 

teacher should fix in mind the aspects of meaning and 
value to be brought out, and should formulate the prob- 
lem-setting questions to be used in initiating and directing 
the necessary processes of reflection and inductive per- 
ceptual judgment. 

5. Step of Synthesis and Inference. — With clear, vivid 
images of the more important sense qualities or facts 
presented in connection with a given construction, object, 
or story impressed upon the mind of the child, and with the 
particular significance of these determined, instruction, in 
conformity to perceptual inductive learning, seeks to lead 
the child to create out of his images and separate impressions 
of the different aspects of a given object, a concrete idea of 
it in its entirety, or seeks to lead him to fuse his separate 
insights into the ways of meeting this and that part of a 
difficulty into a comprehensive concrete idea of how to 
meet it as a whole, or seeks to lead him to forge into a con- 
crete thought-whole his impressions of the different facts or 
scenes of the given myth or story. In short, what was 
presented as material of thought in the step of presentation, 
worked over in that of elaboration, is given further meaning 
and value in this step, and the child attains thereby the 
essentially new concrete idea or ideas, the attainment of 
which has given purpose and point to the given process of 
inductive perceptual learning. 

The particular methods to be employed vary with the 
nature of the materials under consideration. Among the 
more important are to be included narration, description, 
and explanation on the part of the child. These find a 
wide range of apphcation in nature study, primary number 
work, beginning reading, history, home geography, and 
hand-work, for on the whole there is no better way of 



2i8 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

bringing the child to unify his thoughts than to require 
him to describe the construction or object studied, to 
narrate the myth, fable, or story presented, or to explain 
how to meet a given difficulty, to make a given thing, to 
solve a given problem. It is upon these methods that 
the teacher must in the main depend, though others may 
be employed with good effect; such, for example, as 
drawing, moulding, and dramatic representation. 

As a basis of this work, the teacher must analyze into 
its constituent elements the concrete idea or idea-whole, to 
which he is endeavoring to lead the child, and make sure 
that the child brings into the essentially new mental whole, 
which is in process of formation, those thought elements 
necessary to the acquisition of the desired insight or infor- 
mation. 

6. Step oj Verification and Use. — In possession of the 
essentially new concrete idea or ideas desired, there remains, 
if instruction is to conform to the final movement of induc- 
tive perceptual thought, the guidance of the child in using 
the essentially new insight in the satisfaction of the need 
initiating the given process of perceptual induction. The 
inciting need is often satisfied through the acquisition of 
the essentially new information, but when not, opportunity 
must be given for its use to this end; and it is the direction 
of the child in thus using his essentially new knowledge 
that constitutes the work of inductive perceptual instruction 
in its final step. 

The form that application takes and the particular 
methods applicable depend upon the need to be satisfied. 
If the motive for learning a myth is that a picture may be 
understood, opportunity should be afforded to employ 
the knowledge gained in its study and appreciation. If the 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 219 

motive for reading a story is that it may be dramatized, 
when mastered, the children should be guided in its repre- 
sentation. If it is to solve a given problem, in posses- 
sion of the requisite insights, the child should be directed 
in its solution, and the application of the new knowledge 
may be broadened to apply to other similar problems. If 
it is that a given thing may be done or a given thing made, 
with the necessary knowledge of ends and means in hand, 
opportunity should be given for doing or making the given 
thing. As suggested, the child is not left to himself in this 
step, but sufficient guidance is given, mainly through the 
use of the directive, problem-setting question, to enable 
him to use in the best way the information acquired. It is 
in thus directing the child in the application of knowledge 
that thought arising from need finds its completion in the 
satisfaction of need, or arising because of the necessity of 
action fulfills its function in supplying the basis of action. 

§ 3. The Inductive Conceptual Method of 
Instruction 

The inductive conceptual method of instruction rests 
upon the third of the above principles and arises from 
conforming procedure in teaching to the movements and 
characteristics of thought as manifest in the inductive 
conceptual process of learning. 

I . Step of Development of Motive and Statement of Aim. — 
Instruction that conforms to the inductive conceptual 
mode of learning seeks, first, to stimulate a need, which in 
turn will give rise to a motive for carrying through such a 
learning process. The motive for this arises when the 
child finds that, to satisfy a given desire, he must resolve 
an opposing difficulty which can be overcome only through 



220 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

the acquisition and application of an essentially new general 
idea. For it is this discovery that reveals the necessity and 
purpose of thought. The excitation of such a need, the 
bringing of the child face to face with such a difficulty, and 
the fixing of the point of a given process of inductive con- 
ceptual learning is therefore the work of the first step of 
conceptual instruction. 

The particular methods applicable are similar to those 
to be used in the corresponding step of inductive perceptual 
instruction. Advantage may be taken of a need in the 
consciousness of the child or a need may be excited, and 
through giving him opportunity to satisfy it, he may find 
for himself or be led to discover the difficulty to be overcome 
or the situation to be met. 

The means that may be employed include the use of 
past experience, the discussion of certain conditions of life 
and of how they are met, the setting of a problem of how 
given things are made, or the putting of questions with 
respect to the reason or cause of this or that. 

As in inductive perceptual instruction, it is important, 
both for the sake of the pupil and the teacher, to formulate 
the object of the given process of inductive conceptual 
learning on the part of the child and of the given instruction 
on the part of the teacher. In many cases the pupil will, 
at least with a minimum amount of guidance, be able to 
formulate the aim for himself, yet it is necessary at times 
to do this for him. 

The guides suggested in connection with the step of 
inductive perceptual instruction are appHcable here. There 
is, however, one exception. An essential characteristic 
of the aim, as there given, was, that it be concrete; con- 
creteness is no longer an essential feature. In an inductive 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 221 

conceptual lesson, the aim may be abstract and it is often 
preferable so to put it. 

In view of what is to be accomplished, there is implied 
with respect to the teacher a knowledge of the needs of 
the child at the given time, also insight into the means to 
be employed and how to use them in the excitation of a 
particular desire; there is implied also a knowledge of the 
mental or physical obstacle standing in the way, and of 
the essentially new general idea that must be acquired and 
used in resolving the opposing difhculty, if the given need 
is to be gratified. 

2. Step of Recall. — It is an essentially new experience 
or group of experiences that is worked over into knowledge 
through the inductive conceptual process of learning. Such 
an experience or group of experiences contains, as we have 
seen, elements that have previously been given general 
significance, and in so far as an essentially new experience 
or group of experiences contains old and famiHar elements, 
it is given general meaning and value in view of old elements 
or through the corresponding deductive process. That 
instruction may conform to inductive conceptual learning, 
provision must be made for this implicit operation therein 
of deductive conceptual learning, and it is the necessity of 
making such provision that gives rise to the second step in 
inductive conceptual instruction. 

Such provision can be made through providing for the 
recall of experiences previously given general meaning and 
value, or for the recall of old general ideas. The general 
ideas to be brought to mind will depend in each case on 
those involved in the ready acquisition of the individual 
concept or the essentially new class concept sought. Since 
the object of this step is to provide for the use of old 



2 22 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

general ideas or for the implicit operation in this process 
of learning of the corresponding deductive process, it fol- 
lows that no new instruction should be given in it. 

The particular method to be employed varies with the 
problem to be solved or the question to be answered. 
Although conversation, narration, and description may at 
times be used to good advantage, the desired old general 
ideas may be recalled best, on the whole, through well- 
directed book reviews and the use of well-pointed questions. 

In view of the work in hand, there is implied, on the part 
of the teacher, a knowledge of the past experiences of the 
child and of what old general ideas are included in the 
essentially new concept to be attained; and there is implied 
in addition the fixing upon which of these ideas shall be 
brought to mind and upon the means to be used in doing it. 

3. Step of Presentation. — In conformity with inductive 
conceptual learning, instruction, in its next step, seeks to 
guide the child in the acquisition of the requisite experience, 
or seeks to present to him the sense materials implied in 
the attainment of the desired individual or essentially new 
class concept. The data to be presented here differ radi- 
cally from those to be suppHed in inductive perceptual 
instruction. The difference is brought to view, if the same 
object is made the subject of an inductive perceptual and of 
an inductive conceptual lesson. If the subject of a lesson 
of the former kind is Niagara Falls, adequate sense materials 
are presented to give the child a concrete idea-whole of it. 
If Niagara is made the subject of one of the latter type and 
the aim of the given lesson is to develop an individual 
concept, then the data suppHed must not only be such as 
to afford the means of obtaining a concrete idea of Niagara, 
but also such as will serve as the basis of att^*' -"-- 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 223 

desired insight into its distinctive features. It is these 
latter elements that are rightly ignored in inductive per- 
ceptual instruction, and though the sense materials pre- 
sented therein are often sufficient to supply the means of 
gaining an individual concept, to use them to this end 
forms no part of inductive perceptual instruction. The 
difference is still further emphasized, if the object of a given 
inductive conceptual lesson is to develop an essentially 
new class concept. In this case it is necessary to supply 
data not only with reference to one waterfall, for example, 
Niagara, but with reference to several, and there is need 
of presenting sufficient sense materials with respect to each 
to afford the basis not only of acquiring a concrete idea 
thereof, but also of gaining insight into the common and 
essential characteristics of waterfalls as a class. 

The particular methods to be employed in the presenta- 
tion of the selected data and in making these real vary with 
the sense materials in question. When possible, they should 
be presented through the direct means of observation and 
experimentation; where this is impossible, use should be 
made of pictures, models, maps, etc. There is wide range 
here also for the employment of books when the facts are 
not otherwise accessible, as well as for the use of narration 
and description by the teacher. 

The following may be taken as guides: Those sense 
materials and only those should be brought to the child 
that are essential to the attainment of the desired individual 
or essentially new class concept. Preparatory to this, the 
teacher should fix upon the data to be supplied in the given 
lesson and should decide upon the particular methods to 
be employed. The facts should be so ordered as to facilitate 
^^.cir.'^^quisition, presented in the light of past experience 



224 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

or old general ideas recalled, and in a manner to result in 
clear, distinct, and vivid images; provision should also 
be made for frequent summaries. 

, 4. Step of Elaboration. — With the necessary sense ma- 
terials in hand, instruction, in conformity to conceptual 
induction, seeks to lead the child to work these over with a 
view to bringing out certain general aspects of meaning and 
value. To illustrate, if the purpose of an inductive con- 
ceptual lesson is to develop an individual concept of Niagara 
Falls, instruction, in this step, guides the child in analyzing 
the data presented into their component parts, in compar- 
ing the elements discovered with similar ones found in 
other waterfalls or in connection with the experiences 
recalled, and leads him to reflect and to pass judgment 
upon what Niagara is with a given element and what it 
would be without that element. In this way the child 
comes to appreciate one by one the distinct and charac- 
teristic aspects of Niagara and to apprehend their respective 
significance. If, on the other hand, the object of the lesson 
is to develop an essentially new class concept, the teacher 
guides the child in analyzing the data presented with refer- 
ence to each waterfall and leads him, through comparison, 
creative thought, and inductive conceptual judgment to 
an appreciation of the common and essential elements 
thereof and of their respective general meaning and value 
in the cases under consideration. 

The difference between the work of this step in inductive 
perceptual and in inductive conceptual instruction is readily 
apparent. In the former, the teacher seeks to bring the 
child to a clear, distinct, and vivid image, and to a simple, 
concrete appreciation of each of the more important factors 
in the materials presented in connection with the con- 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 225 

struction, object, problem, myth, poem, or event in 
question. In the latter, he seeks to bring him to an 
understanding of the several distinctive aspects of a given 
particular and of their respective significance, or to a 
comprehension of this and that element as common and 
essential in given typical individuals. 

There is but one method on the whole apphcable here — 
that of the question and answer; it is upon directive, 
problem-setting questions that the teacher must rely in 
leading the child to make the desired analyses and com- 
parisons, to do the desired reflective thinking, and to pass 
the desired inductive conceptual judgments. 

In doing the work of this step, there is imphed, on the 
one hand, that the teacher decide upon the characteristic 
features of the particular of which an individual concept 
is to be given, or upon the common and essential elements 
of the typical individuals of which an essentially new 
class concept is sought; and there is implied, on the other 
hand, that he formulate the larger, directive, problem- 
setting questions to be used in leading the child to make 
the analyses and comparisons and to do the reflective 
thinking involved in the appreciation of this or that aspect 
of a given individual as distinctive, or in the comprehension 
of this or that element as common and essential in the par- 
ticular cases in hand. 

5. Step of Synthesis and Inference. — With the sense 
materials presented and elaborated, instruction, in con- 
formity with the inductive conceptual learning, endeavors, 
where an individual concept is sought, to lead the child 
to fuse his separate ideas of the distinctive aspects of the 
individual in question into a comprehensive and vivid 
thought-whole and upon the basis thereof to draw appro- 



226 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

priate inferences with respect to the given particular; this 
is true whether the individual concept desired is of a 
construction, of an event in history, or of a selection in 
literature. In case of an essentially new class notion, 
the teacher leads the child to draw his several ideas of the 
different common and essential characteristics found in a 
group of individuals into an idea- whole, and through 
generalization on the basis thereof to gain a conception 
of the class; this should be done whether the general 
idea sought is of phenomena of nature, facts of geography, 
or problems in arithmetic. The work of this step does 
not consist, however, in guiding the child in putting 
together, as one might gather together a number of scat- 
tered bricks, the insights and appreciations acquired, but 
consists more especially in leading him to create out of 
these an essentially new general idea. 

In stimulating the child to the constructive and creative 
thought impKed in synthesis and inference, the chief 
means to be used is again the directive, problem-setting 
question. Summarizing, explanation, narration, and de- 
scription on the part of the child find also a wide range 
of application. 

To do the work of this step, the teacher must have in 
mind the thought elements to be fused and the infer- 
ences to be drawn; he must know, too, the particular 
methods to be used and how to employ them in guiding the 
child to the desired phases of general meaning and value, 
to their synthesis into the desired concept, and to the 
desired conclusions; finally, it is well to let the child first 
state the new generalization in his own words, even though 
this may need correction and it may be advisable later to 
give him a textbook or classic statement for the same. 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 227 

6. Step of Verification and Use. — With the child in 
possession of the new individual or essentially new class 
concept, instruction, conforming to inductive conceptual 
learning, gives opportunity — when the process does not 
culminate with the attainment of the essentially new 
conception — to use this in the satisfaction of the initi- 
ating need, and it is making place for this that is distinctive 
of the final step of inductive conceptual instruction. 

The work here, however, is broader than merely giving 
the pupil opportunity to use the given general idea to 
gratify the need that yields the motive for the acquisition 
of the given idea; it includes, in addition, whether the 
essentially new general idea gained be a law of physics, 
a rule in arithmetic, a principle, or an ideal of action, 
the bringing of the child to an appreciation of the various 
realms to which the given general idea is applicable, and 
especially to an appreciation of how to apply it to the 
ordinary and actual problems and conditions of present- 
day life. 

Though the means to be used is, as a rule, the direct- 
ive question, the form that application assumes and the 
particular methods to be employed vary with the general 
idea and with the need to be satisfied. If, for example, 
the motive for learning a principle of physics is that a 
given thing may be constructed, application consists in 
directing the child in the use of the principle to that end, 
or if the motive for mastering a given rule is to solve a 
class of problems, the child should be guided in applying 
the rule to their solution, or if the motive for obtaining 
an essentially new conception is that certain phenomena, 
facts, or events may be understood, application consists 
in helping him to explain them in the light of it. It is in 



228 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

thus directing the child in the use of the essentially new 
general ideas acquired that the circuit of inductive con- 
ceptual thought is completed and knowledge made to 
serve its function in life. 

Preparatory to this work, the teacher should fix upon the 
particular methods and means to be employed in aiding 
the child in overcoming the difficulty, in meeting the 
situation, in solving the problem, that called for the acquisi- 
tion of the given general idea; he should also decide upon 
the other ways in wliich it is desirable, at the time, to make 
appHcation of the given general idea and upon the means 
to be used. As a guiding thought for the step as a whole, 
the child should be led to apply his knowledge in such 
ways as will be most helpful in every-day life. 

§ 4. The Deductive Perceptual Method of 
Instruction 

The deductive perceptual method of instruction rests 
upon the fourth of the above principles and arises from 
conforming procedure in teaching to the movements and 
characteristics of thought as manifest in the deductive 
perceptual process of learning. 

I . Step of Development of Motive and Statement of Aim. — 
In conformity to this learning process, instruction first 
seeks to excite a need which may be most readily satisfied 
through the application of a previously acquired concrete 
idea or idea whole; it seeks also, through bringing the 
child face to face with the opposing mental or physical 
difficulty, to stimulate a motive for and to make clear the 
object of the process of deductive perceptual learning 
involved in resolving the given obstacle and in gratifying 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 229 

the given inciting need. The doing of this characterizes 
the first step of deductive perceptual instruction.^ 

2. Step of Presentation. — The appreciation of a diffi- 
culty or problem implies some Httle knowledge of the 
situation or condition out of which it arises. It does not, 
however, presuppose insight sufficient to enable one to 
overcome or resolve the obstacle, even though this may 
be done in view of concrete ideas previously acquired. 
The doing of this necessitates the collection of additional 
sense materials, and their acquisition marks a distinct 
movement in deductive perceptual thought. In conformity 
thereto, deductive perceptual instruction endeavors, in its 
second step, to supply, or to lead the child to acquire by 
himself, the data requisite to the accomplishment of the 
mental task in hand, and to make his impressions of the 
data acquired or presented real and life-Hke, 

The materials to be presented in the two methods of 
perceptual instruction are somewhat different. In the 
inductive, it is necessary to supply such data as will 
enable the child to attain an essentially new concrete idea 
or thought-whole; in the deductive, there is only need 
of presenting such sense materials as will enable him to 
recognize readily the similarity or difference between the 
given situation, object, or construction and one previously 
met, determined, or constructed, or will enable him to 

^ As a rule, the methods and guides suggested in our consideration of 
inductive instruction are, with slight modification, applicable to the corre- 
sponding step and method of deductive instruction. For this reason, these 
will not be repeated. It will, however, be found of profit, in connection 
with the study of each step of deductive perceptual and conceptual instruc- 
tion, to have the student review the methods and guides for the same step 
of the corresponding method of inductive instruction, and to consider what 
changes arc necessary to make these applicable to the step in question. 



230 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

recognize the similarity or difference between the given 
experience and one previously worked over into a concrete 
idea. 

3. Step oj Recall, — The sense materials presented do 
not of themselves reveal their meaning and value or always 
suggest the experience or old concrete ideas upon the 
basis of which this may be most readily determined. 
Hence the teacher seeks to lead the child to recall those 
concrete ideas which will be most helpful to him in acquir- 
ing the desired concrete insight. As a rule, it is sufficient 
to bring to the child's mind the concrete idea or ideas 
gained in giving meaning and value to a single experience, 
and there is seldom need, as is often the case in this step 
of inductive perceptual instruction, to recall various 
experiences or parts of different ones. 

4. Step of Elaboration, — With the necessary data 
presented and the helpful concrete ideas recalled, instruc- 
tion, in conformity to the deductive perceptual process 
of learning, leads the child to analyze into their elements, 
on the one hand, the sense materials in question and, on 
the other, the past experience or concrete ideas brought 
to mind; directs him in comparing, in order to find 
casual Hkenesses and differences, the elements found in 
the one with those included within the other; brings 
him, through creative thought and deductive perceptual 
judgment, to a distinct and vivid appreciation of the 
respective casual likenesses and differences existing between 
the two experiences, and leads him in view of differences 
to withhold and in view of likenesses to transfer concrete 
meaning and value to particular elements of the experi- 
ence in question. Though the work of this step is similar 
to that in the corresponding one of inductive instruc- 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 231 

tion, there is lacking, to a large extent, as will be noted, 
the constructive feature characteristic, at this point, of 
the latter. 

5. Step of Synthesis and Inference. — With separate and 
vivid ideas of the different elements of the data under 
consideration, and with their respective significance or 
lack of significance clearly in mind, the teacher, in con- 
formity to the deductive perceptual process of learning, 
leads the child to fuse the separate impressions into an 
idea-whole, and on the basis thereof to draw inferences 
or conclusions. He leads him, for example, to infer, in 
view of the new concrete insight gained, that the given 
problem may or may not be solved in a given way, or to 
infer how the given construction may be or was made, or 
to ascribe to the objects in question certain qualities 
having a given significance. 

The outcome of this step in each of the two methods of 
perceptual instruction will be different. In the inductive, 
an essentially new concrete idea or idea-whole is brought 
to the child. In the deductive, though the child gains a 
new concrete idea, the new idea is very similar to concrete 
ideas previously acquired. In the one case, a distinct 
contribution is made to the child's insights, in the other, 
old knowledge is slightly expanded and given a new form. 

6. Step of Verification and Use. — With the attainment 
of the desired insight, or new concrete ideas, the need yield- 
ing the motive for carrying on the given process of per- 
ceptual deduction is often satisfied. There more generally 
remains, however, the overcoming of the physical or mental 
obstacle standing in the way of the gratification of the 
inciting need. To give the child opportunity for this and 
to direct him in it is to bring instruction into conformity 



232 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

with the final thought movement of deductive perceptual 
learning, and it is the doing of this that is distinctive of 
the final step and work of deductive perceptual instruction. 

§ 5. The Deductive Conceptual Method of 
Instruction 

The deductive conceptual method of instruction rests 
upon the fifth of the above principles and arises from 
conforming procedure in teaching to the movements and 
characteristics of thought as manifest in the deductive 
conceptual process of learning. 

I. The Development of Motive and Statement of Aim. — 
Instruction, in conformity to this process, seeks in its first 
step to excite a need which the child will feel constrained 
to satisfy and to bring him face to face with an opposing 
difficulty which may be resolved through the use of a 
general idea or general ideas previously acquired. The 
excitation of such a need gives rise to the desire to satisfy 
it, and the appreciation that this involves overcoming the 
given difficulty yields the motive for carrying through the 
implied process of deductive conceptual learning and fixes 
its point and purpose. 

It is well to note, in this connection, that the aim of a 
deductive conceptual process of learning on the part of 
the child and of the corresponding process of instruction 
on the part of the teacher may be stated in particular 
and concrete, or in general and abstract terms, according 
as there is need of acquiring or developing a particular 
or a new class concept. If the problem at issue or the 
aim of the lesson has to do, for example, with the agri- 
cultural conditions of eastern North Dakota, it may be 
stated concretely: Is eastern North Dakota suited to 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 233 

farming? The question may then be answered through 
the attainment of a particular concept. If, however, the 
problem or aim of the lesson has to do with the general 
characteristics of, say, the substantive clause, it must be 
stated in general terms: What is a substantive clause 
and what are its uses? The answer implies the acquisi- 
tion of a new class concept. 

2. Step of Presentation. — With the motive developed 
and the object of the learning process determined, deductive 
conceptual instruction, in its next step, supplies or directs 
the child in obtaining the data or the facts with reference 
to the problem in question necessary to its solution. The 
materials of knowledge to be acquired or presented will 
vary according as a particular or new class concept is sought. 
In case of the former, there is need only of presenting data 
with reference to a given particular; the data presented 
must, however, be of such a character as not only to enable 
the child to gain a concrete idea-whole of the given par- 
ticular, but also such as will enable him to appreciate the 
presence therein of certain familiar elements of general 
meaning and value. If, however, there is need of acquiring 
a new class concept, data must be presented with reference 
to a number of similar particulars, and these must be of a 
type to enable the child to come to the appreciation of 
certain known elements of general meaning and value as 
common to the group in review. 

The materials to be brought to the child in this step of 
deductive conceptual instruction are similar to those to 
be presented in the corresponding step and process of 
inductive instruction. There is, however, this difference: 
In inductive conceptual instruction, the facts presented 
with reference to a given particular or with reference to 



234 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

a group must be of a kind to enable the child to learn for 
the first time that certain elements are distinctive of a 
given particular, or are common and essential to a class. 
In deductive conceptual instruction, the materials to be 
presented need only to be such as to enable the child to 
discover in the object, situation, or problem at issue, cer- 
tain elements of general meaning and value with which he 
is familiar, or such as to enable him to note that certain 
known elements of general meaning and value are common 
to the group in question. In the one case provision must 
be made for learning from the ground up, in the other, for 
learning in view of general ideas previously acquired. 

3. Step of Recall. — With the necessary facts in hand, 
deductive conceptual instruction seeks to supply the basis 
for giving these general meaning and value in the most 
economical way. The basis of this is not, as in deductive 
perceptual instruction, a concrete idea or idea-whole, but 
general ideas, and the general idea or ideas to be brought 
to mind are, as a rule, not particular or individual concepts, 
but class concepts. 

4. Step of Elaboration. — Although the child may have 
gathered data with reference to a given problem, object, 
or situation, or with reference to a group of similar par- 
ticulars, and his impressions of these may be vivid, and 
although he may have recalled a given concept or a number 
of general ideas, the full significance of the respective 
materials remains relatively unknown to him. That the 
child may attain with ease the insights implied in the 
accomplishment of the task in hand, instruction, in con- 
formity with the deductive conceptual process of learning, 
guides him, on the one hand, in analyzing the data acquired 
with reference to the given particular or with reference to 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 235 

the given group, — not, however, merely for the sake of 
making clear and distinct the images of the different con- 
stituent factors, but more especially that the general 
elements embodied in the given particular or common to 
the given group may be discovered, — and it guides him, 
on the other hand, in analyzing into its component parts 
the general idea or ideas brought to mind. It also leads 
him, in case a particular concept is desired, to compare 
the elements found in the given particular with those 
included in a given concept, brings him through creative 
thought and deductive conceptual judgment to appreciate 
the essential likenesses or differences between the elements 
finding expression in the particular in question and those 
comprised in the concept recalled, and leads him to with- 
hold in view of differences or transfer in view of similarity 
general meaning and value to particular elements of the 
experience under consideration. Similarly, in case a new 
class concept is sought, the teacher guides him through the 
same thought processes to discover the essential similari- 
ties or differences between the elements common to the 
group of particulars in review and the elements included 
within a given general idea or ideas, and leads him to 
withhold or to transfer general meaning and value to given 
elements in view of essential likenesses or differences. 

Though the work in this step is much like that in the 
corresponding step and process of inductive instruction, 
there is this difference: In the latter process, the child 
is being led to appreciate for the first time that certain 
features are distinctive of a given particular, or that 
certain elements are common and essential to a given 
group, whereas in the former, the child is merely being led 
to observe the presence or absence of certain well-known 



236 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

general elements in a given object, situation, or problem, 
or in a given group or class of phenomena, and to a conse- 
quent withholding or transfer of general significance. 
There is therefore lacking in this step of deductive concep- 
tual instruction that creative element distinctive of the 
corresponding step and process of inductive instruction. 

5. Step of Synthesis and Inference. — With the more 
important elements in the facts presented with reference 
to a particular or group of similar particulars made dis- 
tinct, and with the general significance of these elements 
or the lack of it made clear, the child is directed — in case 
the essential similarities or differences between a given 
particular and a given general idea have been brought 
to view — in bringing together into a particular concept 
the general insights gained, and in drawing appropriate 
inferences with reference to the particular in question. 
If, on the other hand, the essential similarities or differ- 
ences between the common elements of a group of phenom- 
ena and the elements comprised in the given general idea 
or ideas have been made clear, the child is led to fuse 
into a new class concept the different insights into general 
meaning and value thus acquired, and upon the basis 
of this new class concept is guided in drawing inferences 
with reference to the objects, processes, or problems in 
review. 

The contrast at this point between the two modes of 
conceptual instruction is marked. In inductive conceptual 
instruction the child is brought in this step to an idea of 
the distinctive qualities of a given particular, or to an 
idea of the common and essential qualities of a class, 
whereas in the corresponding step of deductive conceptual 
instruction he gains a particular concept which enables 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 237 

him to appreciate the embodiment in a given particular of 
certain known general elements, or he gains a new class 
concept which enables him to understand how the general 
idea or ideas previously acquired may be applied with slight 
modification to a new group of particulars. In the one 
case, he acquires essentially new insights; in the other, old 
knowledge receives modification and expansion. 

6. Step of Verification and Use. — Deductive conceptual 
instruction may culminate with the information gained 
through synthesis and inference, but as a rule place must 
be made for overcoming the mental or physical difficulty 
which stands in the way of satisfying the need that gave rise 
to the particular process of deductive conceptual learning. 
Giving opportunity to apply the knowledge gained to this 
end characterizes the final step of this method of instruction. 

The work of this step does not, however, consist alone 
in guiding the child in solving the problem, meeting the 
situation, or determining the object calling forth the given 
learning process. It may and more often does include 
leading him to see that there are other particular expressions 
of the same general elements, or that the new class con- 
cept may with shght expansion be applied to still other 
groups of phenomena, processes, problems, or situations. 
Though the particulars or classes to which such application 
is made are different each from the other, they must of 
course in the last analysis be essentially similar. Deductive 
conceptual instruction in its final step thus takes somewhat 
the form of the corresponding process of inductive instruc- 
tion, just as the latter in its final step becomes somewhat 
deductive in character. 



238 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

§ 6. Methods of Instruction Abridged and Unabridged 

Such are the steps within and the characteristics of 
the methods of instruction, when procedure in teaching 
is brought into conformity with the learning processes 
active during the elementary school period. Each step 
in a particular method rests upon a given movement of 
thought as implicitly or explicitly manifest in the given 
conditioning process of learning, and the work of teaching 
in each step is conditioned by the character of the thought 
movement in the corresponding step of the determining 
learning process. Like the processes of learning upon 
which they rest, these methods of instruction may at 
times be abridged. The step of recall may be merged 
with that of the development of motive and the statement 
of aim, the work of elaboration may be done in connection 
with the step of presentation; or the step of synthesis and 
inference, or that of verification and use may be omitted. 
What the abridgment may be depends upon the learner 
and upon what is being mastered. As a rule, however, 
unless care is exercised, the abridgment of these methods 
retards rather than facilitates learning. Teaching is con- 
sequently most effective on the whole, when a given method 
is followed step by step in the presentation of a particular 
lesson. 

These methods of instruction, grounded as they are in 
the mental life of the child, are to be regarded as general 
methods, that is, they are to be taken as guides by the 
teacher, in all branches, in inducing processes of inductive 
perceptual or conceptual learning or similar deductive 
processes, and these general methods must be made basic 
in elementary school instruction, if this is to be brought 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 239 

into conformity with the different processes of learning 
active during the elementary school period. 

Readings 

McMurry, Method of the Recitation, pp. 78-113, 146-153, 164-174, 
190-235. 

How to Study, pp. 31-134, 192-220. 
Bagley, Educative Process, pp. 291-315. 

Class-room Management, pp. 188-213. 
Keith, Elementary Education, pp. 134-184. 
Strayer, The Teaching Process, pp. 41-77, 1 14-128. 
Earhart, Types of Teaching, pp. 38-69. 
Dewey, How We Think, pp. 201-213. 
Charters, Methods of Teaching, pp. 146-383. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE LESSON PLAN AND ILLUSTRATIVE PLANS 

§ I. The Problem 

In view of the foregoing general methods, our remain- 
ing problem in connection with elementary school instruc- 
tion is: How may lessons in the studies of the elementary 
school be so planned as to bring teaching into conformity 
with these general methods? The answer to this question 
necessitates a consideration of the lesson plan. 

§ 2. The Lesson Plan 

I. Meaning and Kinds of Lesson Plans. — A lesson plan 
is the scheme worked out by the teacher to guide him in 
the teaching of a lesson as this is conditioned by the 
subject matter to be taught and by the general method 
of instruction to be employed. 

■ Since each of the general methods of instruction enters 
in as a determining factor, the nature and character of the 
lesson plan will vary according as it is conditioned by one 
or the other of these general methods; in consequence, 
there are as many different kinds of lesson plans as there are 
general methods of instruction. If these lesson plans are 
characterized in terms of the general method conditioning 
them, we have what may be called inductive perceptual 
and conceptual, and the corresponding kinds of deductive 
lesson plans. 



THE LESSON PLAN 241 

2. A Good Plan and its Characteristics. — ^A good les- 
son plan is one that is adequate to the work in hand. To 
fix upon its essential characteristics would involve a study 
of each of the different kinds. Because of a similarity 
between them, however, this may be done sufficiently well 
for purposes of practice, if the characteristics of a good 
plan are considered apart from its particular kind. 

The first essential of a good lesson plan is that provision 
be made for doing the work of each step of instruction as 
implied in teaching the lesson in accordance with a given 
general method. This does not mean that the teacher 
should go out of his way to force the lesson to conform 
to all the steps in a given general method of instruction, — ■ 
for example, inductive conceptual, — but it does mean that, 
in so far as the several steps are involved in the teaching 
of a given lesson, provision should be made by the teacher 
for doing the work implied in each step. A lesson is not 
planned when the teacher fortifies himself on the side of 
the subject matter and trusts to luck and the occasion, 
so far as particular methods and means are concerned, or 
when the work of one or two steps is outhned and the work 
of the remaining steps left to chance. 

A second essential is that, in providing for the distinc- 
tive work of each step, the subject matter to be presented, 
the thought to be brought out, the thing to be done, 
should be separated from the particular method, and from 
the ways and means to be employed. Thus, to separate 
content from ways and means tends to render the plan 
more serviceable to the teacher and more intelligible to 
the pupil. A convenient way of doing this is to divide 
the plan with reference to each step into parallel parts 
and to place the subject matter or content on the left- 



242 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

hand side and the particular method or means on the 
right-hand side. 

As a further essential, it is necessary, in connection with 
each step, to indicate on the side of content the more im- 
portant facts to be presented or the larger points to be 
developed, and it may be found of advantage at times to 
give also certain of the subordinate ones; it is necessary, 
on the other hand, to indicate the particular method of 
instruction to be employed. If, for example, the particular 
method to be used is that of the question and answer, 
then the questions to be utilized in directing observation 
or in setting the larger problems should be given, but not 
all the smaller ones that may by chance be used. For, 
apart from the basic aspects of content that must be pre- 
sented, the more important thoughts that must be de- 
veloped, and the larger use of a particular method that 
must be employed, if the lesson is to be a success, the 
teacher should be free to bring out whatever phases of 
meaning and to make whatever use of method the occasion 
may demand. 

Finally, as a suggestion, — though perhaps not to be 
viewed as an essential, — it is well to give both the aim of 
the pupil and that of the teacher. For, as may be readily 
appreciated, the motive of the child for studying a lesson 
and the end, from his point of view, to be accomplished 
through it, may be different from the motive and object 
of the teacher in presenting the same. The teacher's aim, 
however, must always include that of the pupil, and it 
ought to be more comprehensive, especially in the lower 
grades; in the upper, the two aims will more nearly 
coincide, and at times the teacher's may be omitted. 
Thus, to separate the pupil's and the teacher's aim adds 



THE LESSON PLAN 243 

eflectiveness to instruction and makes apparent to others 
the teacher's object in giving the particular lesson. 

3. Necessity of the Lesson Plan. — Though the above 
conception of a good lesson plan and of its essential charac- 
teristics leaves ample opportunity, as we believe, for 
originality, spontaneity, and adaptability, the lesson plan 
cannot take the place of these in good teaching. On 
the other hand, inability to make a good plan, lack of 
appreciation of its worth, and disdain of its use should 
never be taken as signs of teaching power. For no one, 
however great his abihty, is prepared to teach a lesson 
until it has been thoroughly worked over, carefully organ- 
ized, and the plan for it reduced to writing. As a prin- 
ciple, therefore, no lesson should be taught without a 
written plan. 

4. Plan for Thought-Whole or Single Lesson. — Instruc- 
tion has to do in the main with thought-wholes, such as, 
for example, the Critical Period, Decimal Fractions, the 
Great Stone Face, Adjectives, Plant Distribution, etc. 
The question arises, are these to be planned as wholes or 
should there be a plan for each lesson? The larger topics 
of instruction are readily subdivided into smaller thought 
units, and as a rule one of these thought units will supply 
the content of a lesson. It may at times, to be sure, 
take two or three class periods to present a single unit, 
but at other times two or even more units may be covered 
in one recitation. By making one or more of these smaller 
thought units the basis of a lesson, and through organizing 
the lesson with reference to the presentation of these 
units, each lesson has its plan. On the other hand, if each 
lesson is prepared with a view to presenting one or more 
smaller units of thought as parts of a larger whole, the 



244 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

larger topic itself is thereby planned. In short, in dealing 
with the larger thought-wholes of instruction, each lesson 
or series should be so planned as to form an integral part 
of the plan for the larger topic under consideration. 

§ 3. Illustrative Inductive Perceptual 
Lesson Plans 

Light will be thrown upon how the different general 
methods of instruction enter in to condition the teaching 
of given lessons and upon how these are to be planned, 
if a few illustrative lessons are given. 

lesson in primary number 

Based on Heath's Beginner's Arithmetic 

' The Meaning of the Number Two 

Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 
Subject Matter Method 

1. To arouse the desire to learn i. You have learned how to count 
more of the number 2 and of how to and how the number i is used. How 
use it. many can count by 2's? (Let those 

who think they can, try.) What is 
the sum of $2 + $2? $2 + $2 + $2? 

2. Pupil's Aim; To learn more etc. What is the cost of two Teddy 
about what we mean by 2 inches, bears at $2 apiece? etc. Some of 
2 dollars, 2 gallons. you do very well, but how many 

would like to know still more about 
the number 2 and how to use it? 

2. To learn how to use the number 
2, it will be best for us if we first 

3. Teacher's Aim: To bring the learn more about what we mean 
pupils to a better knowledge and a when we say 2 inches, 2 dollars, 2 
clearer appreciation of the meaning gallons, etc. If we try to do this, 
of the number 2. how may we state the aim of our 

first lesson on the number 2? 



THE LESSON PLAN 



245 



Subject Matter 



Recall 



Method 



I. Review of 2 and of its use as 
known by children: 

a. In counting parts of body 

b. In counting money 

c. In counting objects 



I. How many hands have you? 
Eyes? Ears? Feet? 

In one dollar, how many fifty-cent 
pieces? In fifty cents, how many 
quarters? In a dime, how many 
five cents? 

In this room, how many doors, 
windows, etc.? 



Subject Matter 



Presentation 



Method 



I. 


Use of 2 in constructive 


exer- 


cises 












a. 


In 


making angles 






b. 


In 


making triangles 






c. 


In 


making squares 





2. 

3- 
of 2. 



Use in separating into 2 groups. 
Use in separating into groups 



4. The symbol 2. 



I. Have pupils, using inch splints 
and toothpicks, construct angles, the 
sides of which are 2 inches, 2 tooth- 
picks in length. 

Have pupils construct triangles, 
the sides of which are 2 inches, 2 
toothpicks in length. 

Have pupils construct squares, 
the sides of which are 2 inches, 2 
toothpicks in length, 

2. Separate these blocks, splints, 
toothpicks into 2 groups. 

3. Separate these blocks, splints, 
toothpicks into groups of 2. 

4. Presentation of symbol, Read- 
ing and writing of it by pupils. 



Subject Matter 



Elaboration 



Method 



I, Emphasis of thought that 2 
means a given quantity, measured 
by repeating a given measuring unit 
twice. 



I. How many inches long is each 
side of this angle? Of this one? 
How many times must you repeat a 
one-inch measure to measure each 
side? (The angles constructed are 
used as basis of discussion.) 

How many inches long is each side 
of this triangle? How many tooth- 
picks long? How many times must 



246 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

you repeat a one-inch measure to 
measure each side? One toothpick 
taken as a measure? Ask similar 
questions with reference to the 
square. 

How many blocks in each group? 
(Four.) How many altogether? 
How many times must four blocks 
used as a measure be taken to mea- 
sure eight blocks? Ask similar ques- 
tions with reference to splints and 
toothpicks. 

How many groups of 2 blocks have 
you? (Six.) How many all to- 
gether? How many times must 2 
blocks taken as a measure be repeated 
to measure 12 blocks? Ask similar 
questions with reference to splints 
and toothpicks. 



Subject Matter Synthesis and Interence Method 

1. Emphasis of meaning of 2. i. What do I mean by the side of 

an angle being 2 inches long? The 
side of a triangle being 2 toothpicks 
long? The side of a square being 2 
inches long? Etc. What do I 
mean by a group of 2 blocks? Etc. 
That in 1 2 blocks, there are 2 groups 
of 6 blocks? Etc. 

2. Expansion of new meaning of 2 2. What, then, do we mean by 2 
to other measures. inches? 2 dollars? 2 gallons? 2 

pounds? Etc. 



Subject Matter Verification and Use Method 

1. Application of thought gained i. In this class, how many groups 
of the meaning of 2 in counting. of 2 girls? Of 2 boys? Of 2 seats? 

In this class, how many pairs of 
eyes? Of hands? Etc. 

2. Application in solution of simple 2. In 4 dollars how many two dol- 
problems. lars? Why? In 4 gallons, how 



THE LESSON PLAN 247 

many two gallons? Why? Etc. 
In $10 how many $5? Why? In 
$200 how many $100? Why? Etc. 
For ten cents, how many oranges 
can you buy at five cents each? 
Why? For $1, how many knives 
can you buy at 50 cents each? Why? 
Etc. 

The foregoing plan of a lesson in primary number is 
typical of those for the work in arithmetic of the first 
three grades, when this conforms to the inductive per- 
ceptual method of instruction. How such a plan may be 
used is not far to seek. Embodying as it does, on the 
one hand, a statement of the purpose and of the main 
thoughts to be developed in connection with the given 
topic, and embodying, on the other, the particular methods 
and means to be employed in so far as these can be pre- 
determined, the teacher may take the plan as a guide on 
both the side of content and of method. In the teach- 
ing of the above lesson in conformity thereto, there is no 
assignment to be made, as the work implied is to be done 
in the class. The teacher may consequently follow the 
plan step by step and from point to point. The plan, 
however, is not to be viewed as unalterable. Indeed, it 
is the mark of a good teacher to be able to adjust her plan 
to the unforeseen. Yet, as a rule, a plan like the above 
is sufficiently flexible to be easily altered and can be pur- 
sued with Httle deviation from its essential features. To 
be sure, the work implied in its execution may consume 
more than one class or recitation period; but however 
that may be, such a plan serves day by day as a guide in 
the presentation and development of the given unit of 
thought. 



248 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 



LESSON IN PRIMARY READING 
Based on the Haliburton Readers 

Silver Locks and the Three Bears 



Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 
Subject Matter Method 



I. To stimulate the desire to know 
the story of Silver Locks and the 
Three Bears, to reproduce, and to 
read it. 



2. Pupil's Aim: To learn the story 
of Silver Locks and the Three Bears 
that we may act it and read it. 

3. Teacher's Aim: To bring the 
children to a knowledge of this piece 
of folklore, to perception of the truth 
of Hfe therein, and to an appreciative 
reading of it. 



1. Of whom is this a picture? 
(Teacher showing a picture of Silver 
Locks.) It is a picture of Silver 
Locks. How many have heard the 
story of Silver Locks and the Three 
Bears? A very nice play may be 
made from it. How many would 
like to know this story? Like to act 
it in a play? Read it? 

2. If I tell you the story of Silver 
Locks and the Three Bears, what are 
we going to try to do? 



Subject Matter 



Recall 



Method 



I. Review of children's knowledge 
of bears — appearance, habits, tem- 
per. 



I. You may tell us how a bear 
looks. You may tell us where and 
how he hves. You may tell us what 
a bear might do if bothered by a 
little girl. 



Subject Matter 



Presentation 



Method 



SUver Locks and her name. 
Silver Locks and the butterfly. 
The home of the Three Bears. 
The Three Bears. 
Silver Locks in the kitchen. 



6. Silver Locks in the parlor. 



I. The teacher here narrates the 
story point by point on the assump- 
tion that the children are imable to 
gain thought as yet with economy 
from the printed page, or she gives 
certain points and develops others. 



THE LESSON PLAN 



249 



7. Silver Locks in the bedroom. 

8. Return of the Three Bears. 

9. Three Bears and their porridge. 

10. Three Bears and their chairs. 

11. Three Bears and their beds. 

12. Discovery and narrow escape 
of Silver Locks. 



varying with conditions. Pictures, 
drawings, etc. are used to give reahty 
and vividness. 

Later, when the children have the 
requisite abihty, they may be as- 
signed the task of reading the story 
silently in view of acquiring the facts 
for themselves. In this case, free 
use is made in this step of the pivotal 
question, and pictures, drawings, etc. 
are used to give reahty to the impres- 
sions gained. 



Subject Matter 



Elaboration 



Method 



I . New words : porridge, butterfly 
kitchen, etc.; also phrase reading. 



2. Silver Locks. 

3. The Three Bears. 

4. Silver Locks in the kitchen. 

5. Silver Locks in the parlor. 

6. Silver Locks in the bedroom. 

7. Return of the Three Bears to 
the kitchen. 

8. The Three Bears in the parlor. 



9. The Three Bears in the bed- 
room. 



1. By suggestive questions and 
free use of past experience, the 
teacher develops meaning of new 
written words, teaches speUing, 
pronunciation, and phrase reading. 

2. Describe little Silver Locks and 
tell why this was her name. 

3. Who were the Three Bears and 
where did they Uve? 

4. What did Silver Locks find in 
the kitchen and what did she do? 

5. What did Silver Locks find in 
the parlor and what did she do? 

6. What did Silver Locks find in 
the bedroom and what did she do? 

7. What did the father bear find 
on returning to the kitchen, and what 
did he do and say? The mother 
bear? The baby bear? 

8. What did the father bear find 
in the parlor and what did he do and 
say? The mother bear? The baby 
bear? 

9. What did the father bear find 
on entering the bedroom, and what 
did he do and say? The mother 
bear? The baby bear? 



250 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

lo. Narrow escape of Silver Locks. lo. How did Silver Locks escape? 

Why was it right that she should be 
greatly frightened? 

Subject Matter Synthesis and Inference Method 

I. Summary of main points of i. Repetition of story as a whole 
story. by children. 

Subject Matter Verification and Use Method 

I. Use of knowledge and apprecia- i. Have different children draw 

tion gained: or mould various parts of story; let 

a. In reproducing the story them select the best drawings or 
through drawing or moulding mouldings and from these construct 

b. In dramatizing it the story as a whole. 

c. In learning to read it with Guide and direct the children in 
appreciation and expression dramatizing the story. 

Guide and direct children in giving 
oral expression to the thought and 
spirit of the story. 

Such is the plan of a primary reading lesson when con- 
ditioned by the inductive perceptual method of instruction. 
To teach the given lesson would consume four or perhaps 
five recitation periods. In the first, the motive would be 
developed, the aim stated, the proper past experiences 
recalled, and either the entire story narrated by the teacher 
or certain points given and others developed. During the 
second period, through suggestive questions and free dis- 
cussion, the more important points as indicated in the 
step of elaboration would be brought out and the story 
as a whole summarized or retold by the children. There 
would also be drill upon new words and especially upon 
phrase reading. Up to this time, all work has been done 
in the class. At the end of the second period and as pre- 
paratory for the next, the children would be divided into 



THE LESSON PLAN 251 

groups and assigned the task of drawing or moulding some 
particular portion of the selection. In the third, these 
drawings would be inspected and from the best the story 
as a whole constructed. The remainder of this period 
would be taken up with the dramatization of the story, 
and indeed this might have to go over to a fourth. However 
this may be, at the conclusion of the period the task of 
studying the printed story from the point of view of oral 
expression is assigned to the children as seat work for the last 
recitation period, and their reading of it with appreciation 
constitutes the final work in teaching the story of Silver 
Locks and the Three Bears. 

When pupils are able to acquire the desired facts from 
the printed page, as in the later primary grades, the plan 
differs somewhat from the above on the method side in 
the step of presentation, and the work in the step of 
elaboration becomes more condensed. This makes a dif- 
ference in the way the plan is used. In this case, at the 
end of a preceding period the teacher develops the motive, 
has the desired past experiences recalled, teaches the 
meaning of the new words, and as a seat task assigns the 
points outlined in the step of presentation as topics of 
study. The first period is then devoted to a restatement 
of the aim, to a brief review of the more important parts 
of the experiences recalled and the new words taught, and 
to bringing out one by one, through the use of pivotal 
questions and free discussion, the different portions of the 
story. But from this point on, with the exception of 
differences due to the greater maturity of the children, 
and the consequent condensation of the work in elaboration, 
procedure in the two cases is similar. 

The pursuance in actual instruction of such a plan 



252 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

throws the emphasis upon thought-getting and upon the 
stimulation of appreciation, — the mere mechanics of read- 
ing is made secondary. To plan and teach primary reading 
in this way would, it is beheved, materially improve the 
work in this branch of learning. 

The above lesson plan — particularly with the modifi- 
cations suggested — is not only illustrative of an inductive 
perceptual lesson in primary reading, but also — ^ because 
of the similarity of the materials and the character of the 
instruction — is equally illustrative of how inductive per- 
ceptual lessons in the earlier work in history are to be 
planned and presented. Indeed, the only difference be- 
tween the two is that oral reading naturally forms no 
part of history teaching. 

LESSON IN HOME GEOGRAPHY 
Based on an excursion to the Athens Brick Co. 

Brick Making 

Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 
Subject Matter Method 

1. To stimulate the desire to learn i. What is this? (Showing an 
how Athens blocks are made. Athens block, the name of a brick 

made at Athens.) You may tell of 
one way in which Athens blocks are 
used. You may tell of another. Etc. 
How are Athens blocks made? How 
many would hke to visit the plant 
and learn? 

2. Pupil's Aim: To see how Athens 2. If we do this, what will be the 
blocks are made. chief purpose of our visit? 

3. Teacher's Aim: To teach the 
children how Athens blocks are made 
and to thereby lay the foundation of 
appreciating the essential features in 
the manufacture of clay products. 



THE LESSON PLAN 



253 



Subject Matter 



Presentation 



Method 



1 . The shale-bank and the digging 
of the shale: 

a. Size and appearance of bank 

b. Appearance and character of 
shale 

c. Mode of digging 

2. Conveying of shale to plant: 

a. Cars and tracks 

b. Loading 

c. Mules and drivers 

d. Unloading 

3. The miU or grinder: 

a. Shape and character of mill 

b. Letting of shale into mill 

c. Work of mill 

d. Appearance of shale on com- 
ing from mill 

4. The sieve: 

a. Form and character of sieve 

b. Conve)dng of shale to sieve 

c. Work of sieve 

5. The mixer: 

a. Form and character of mixer 

b. Letting of shale into mixer 

c. The mixing 

d. Appearance of mixed shale 

6. The press: 

a. Form and appearance of 
press 

b. Admission of shale 

c. Work of press 

d. Appearance of shale coming 
from press 

7. The cut-off: 

a. Form and appearance of 
cut-off 

b. Work of cut-off 

c. Appearance of shale coming 
from cut-off 



I. On visiting the shale-bank, the 
observation of the children is directed 
by the teacher through suggestive 
questions to the points as indicated. 



2. Method same as above (i) in 
the presentation of this and all re- 
maining points. 



254 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

8. The repress: 

a. Form and appearance of 
repress 

h. Work of repress 

c. Appearance of shale on leav- 
ing repress 

9. The carriage trucks: 
a. Appearance 

h. Use 

10. The drying-kibi: 
a. Construction 
h. Hot air fan 

c. The drying 

d. The bricks on coming from 
drying-kiln 

11. The firing-kiln: 

a. Form and construction 

b. Appearance empty 

c. Appearance filled 

d. The firing: fuel and dura- 
tion 

e. The brick when fired 



Subject Matter Elaboration Method 

1. Shale as material out of which i. Name and describe the material 
Athens blocks are made. out of which Athens blocks are made. 

Tell how it is obtained. 

2. The milling of the shale. 2. Describe the process through 

which the shale is made into a pow- 
der. Why is it made into a powder? 

3. The mixing. 3. When milled, how is the shale 

prepared for the press? Why is this 
done? 

4. The pressing. 4. How is the shale pressed? 

What is the purpose of this? 

5. The dr)ang of brick. 5. Describe the process of drying 

and teU why this is done. 

6. The burning of brick. 6. Describe the burning of the 

brick and give reasons for burning. 



THE LESSON PLAN 255 

Subject Mailer Synthesis and Inference Method 

I. Summary with reference to i. Describe the material used and 

material used and the process as a tell how Athens blocks are made, 
whole involved in making Athens 2. Have one section of the class 
Blocks. draw a picture of the shale-bank; 

another, of how the shale is conveyed 
to the mill, etc. Have class select 
the best picture from each group and 
form and preserve as picture- whole of 
the process. 

The above lesson plan would be used somewhat as fol- 
lows: At the end of a previous recitation period, the teacher 
would develop the desire to visit the brick plant and to 
learn how Athens blocks are made. Wherever possible, 
it is well to develop in a recitation period, as a class exercise, 
the different points in the process to be observed. With 
the desire excited and the object fixed, the teacher on the 
same or the following day visits the plant with the chil- 
dren, and through directive questioning guides them in 
the observation of the process point by point as outlined 
and developed in the step of presentation. (Many excur- 
sions and object lessons fail, because the teacher has no 
definite idea of what is to be observed, and as a result the 
children, relatively undirected, see little.) On the follow- 
ing day, the distinct parts of the process are taken up one 
*^ by one, as indicated in the step of elaboration, and through 
suggestive questions and free discussion, the meaning 
and purpose of each is made clear. Up to this point, all 
the work has been done either at the brick plant or in the 
class. On the completion of elaboration and for the suc- 
ceeding period, the teacher assigns to different groups the 
task of preparing to describe a given part of the process of 



256 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

making Athens blocks; there is also assigned the addi- 
tional task of making a drawing of some particular portion 
of the process. The final recitation period is then spent 
in hearing these descriptions, in criticising the drawings, 
in the selection by the class of the best drawings and in 
constructing from these a picture of the process. In the 
given lesson, it will be noted, there is no immediate appli- 
cation made of the information acquired, the present need 
of the child being satisfied with its acquisition. In 
geography in general, however, there is a broad field for 
application and this often takes the form of actual 
construction. 

The above plan, although of an inductive perceptual 
lesson in geography, serves to illustrate how similar ones 
in elementary school science are to be prepared, and the 
suggestions with reference to its use apply equally well 
to the teaching of these. 

§ 4. Illustrative Deductive Perceptual Lesson Plans 

LESSON IN primary NUMBER 
Based on Heath's Beginner's Arithmetic 

Multiplication Table of Two's 

Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 
Subject Matter Method 

I. To arouse the desire to learn i. If you buy 2 dolls at $2 each, 
how to multiply when 2 is the how do you find the sum. to be paid? 
measure. (Most of the children, in view of 

previous instruction, will answer, 
"By addition.") Give other similar 
problems, and lead them to see that 
the amount to be paid may be found 
by taking the given sum as a measure 
a given number of times. Show the 



THE LESSON PLAN 



257 



2. Pupil's Aim: How to multiply 
when 2 is the measure, 

3. Teacher's Aim: To teach the 
pupils how to multiply when 2 is the 
measure and to teach them thereby 
the multiphcation table of 2's. 



children the convenience and utihty 
of this method. Tell them that the 
amount is found by what is called 
multiphcation. You have learned 
to count by 2's and how to add 2's. I 
am sure you will now like to learn 
how to multiply by 2. 

2. If we try to learn this, what 
point shall we keep in mind? 



Subject Matter 



Recall 



Method 



1. Review meaning of 2. 

2. Review addition of 2's. 



1. What is meant by $2, 2 pints, 
2 gallons, 2 quarts, 2 inches, 2 yards? 

2. Add $2 $2 $2 $2 $2 $2 $2 $2 

222222 
2 2 
2 



2 2 
2 2 
2 2 
2 



Have problems and answers writ- 
ten on blackboard in view of pupils. 



Subject Matter 



Elaboration 



Method 



I. Deduction of thought that 
2 X $2 = $4, 2x2 in. = 4 in., etc., 
and that 2 x 2 of any quantity = 4 
of that quantity. 



I. In the first problem, how many 
$2 are added? How many times 
must $2 be taken to measure $4? 
2 X $2 = ? How many times must 
2 in. be taken to measure 4 in.? 
2 X 2 in. = ? 2 yd. ' be taken to 
measure 4 yd.? 2x2 yd. = ? How 
many times must 2 be taken to 
measure 4 of any quantity? 2x2 
of any quantity = ? Place answer 
in view of pupils. 



258 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

2. Deduction of thought that 2. Proceed as in i. 
3 X $2 = $6, 3X2 in. = 6 in., etc., 

and 3 X 2 of any quantity = 6 of 
that quantity. 

3. Continue until the table includ- 
ing 9 X 2 is developed. 

Subject Matter Synthesis and Inference Method 

I. Summary of table of 2 's as i. Summary by pupils through 
deduced. solution of problems: 

2X$2 = ? 2x2 = ? 3X$2 = ? 
3X2 = ? Etc. 

Subject Matter Verification and Use Method 

1. Verification of table deduced i. Compare the sum of $2 + $2 
through comparison with previous with the product of 2 x $2, the sum 
work in addition. of $2 + $2 + $2 with the product of 

3 X $2, etc. 

2. Verification through measure- 2. Measure a 4 in. strip with a 2 in. 
ments. measure; 6 in. strip; 8 in. strip, etc. 

Record length of measure, the times 
taken in measurement, and length of 
strip measured. Compare results 
with table as deducted. 

3. Solution of problems. 3. Solution and simple explana- 

tion on part of pupils. 

4. Memorize table. 4. Drill on table of 2's. 

The deductive perceptual lesson plan is used much like 
the inductive. In teaching the above lesson, the plan 
would be followed point by point up to and including the 
first one in the step of verification and use, the work 
being done in the class. On completing the lesson to this 
point, the teacher would give, as seat work, the task of 
verifying the table through actual measurements and the 
solution and explanation of given problems. The next 
class period would be devoted to considering the results 



THE LESSON PLAN 259 

obtained by measurement and to the explanation of the 
respective problems. At the end of this recitation, the 
remaining examples would be assigned, also the formula- 
tion by the children of other problems and their solution, 
and the task of memorizing the table. The succeeding 
period would then be spent in the explanation of these 
problems by the children and in drill upon the table. 

The deductive perceptual method of instruction has as 
yet been little used in primary number. Nevertheless, in 
all but the very earHest portions, it finds a broad field of 
application. It is believed that, as time goes on, such 
instruction will be brought more and more into conformity 
with this method and that the deductive perceptual lesson 
will come more and more into use. 

LESSON IN PRIMARY READING 
Based on Baldwin's Robinson Crusoe 

How Robinson Made Pots and Jars 

Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 
Subject Matter Method 

1. To stimulate the desire to learn i. What did we learn in our last 
how Robinson made pots and jars. lesson that Robinson had succeeded 

in raising? What are some of the 
more important things that your 
mother uses in cooking? Which did 
Robinson have? Of those he didn't 
have, which would he now need the 
most? Why? (Lead the children 
to see that he would need pots to 
cook in and jars to put things in.) 
How might Robinson get them? 

2. Pupil's Aim: To find out how 2. If we try to find out, how may 
Robinson made pots and jars. we state the aim of our lesson? 

3. Teacher's Aim: To lead the 
children to see how Robinson made 



26o PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 



pots and jars, and thereby to appre- 
ciate primitive modes of making 
these; and also to appreciate the 
advantages of living in an age and 
society like ovir own. 



Subject Matter 



Presentation 



Method 



I. Need of finding suitable ma- 
terial. 



2. Need of finding out how to 
form material into pots and jars. 



1. If Robinson was to have pots 
and jars, what would he have to 
secure? (Lead children to see that 
he must have suitable material.) 

2. Having procured the material, 
what further difl5culties would Rob- 
inson have? (Lead children to see 
that he must learn to make pots and 
jars from the given material.) 



Subject Matter 



Recall 



Method 



1. Review of how Logan crocks 
and jars are made: material used, 
moulding, dr3dng, firing. 

2. Review of materials used in 
making pots and jars. 

3. Review of use of pots and jars. 



1. Out of what did we find that 
Logan crocks and jars are made? 
How are these moulded? How 
dried? How hardened? 

2. What materials are used in 
making pots and jars? 

3. In what ways does your mother 
use her pots and jars? 



Subject Matter 



Elaboration 



Method 



I. Material used by Robinson. 



2. Moulding of pots and jars. 



1. Of what would Robinson think 
to make his pots and jars? Which 
of these would he decide upon and 
why? How do you suppose he went 
about finding the right kind of clay? 
(Lead children to see that he would 
have to make both of clay and that 
it would not be easy to find it.) 

2. How would Robinson mix the 
clay and mould his pots and jars? 
(Lead children to see that he would 
have to mix the clay and mould the 



THE LESSON PLAN 261 

vessels by hand, and that it would 
take many trials to learn how to do 
the latter.) 

3. Drying of pots and jars. 3. How would Robinson dry his 

pots and jars? (Lead children to 
see that he would put them in the 
sun.) 

4. Firing of pots and jars. 4. How would Robinson fire his 

pots and jars? (Lead children to 
see that he would build a fire around 
them, and that it took many trials 
to learn how to do this well.) 

5. Use made of pots and jars. 5. Why did Robinson want pots 

and jars? How did he use them? 

Subject Matter Synthesis and Inference Method 

I. Summary: material used, way i. Tell the story of how you think 
of moulding, drying, firing; use made Robinson made his pots and jars and 
of finished articles. of how you think he used these. 

Subject Matter Verification and Use Method 



1 . Reading of how Robinson made i . Guide and direct children in 
his pots and jars and of how he used the learning of new written words 
them, pp. 74-77. and in reading the story. 

2. AppUcation of knowledge 2. Guide and direct children in 
gained in moulding pots and jars moulding, drying, and firing pots 
and in firing these where convenient, and jars. 

In teaching this lesson according to the above plan, 
since relatively all the work is done in the class, the 
teacher would be able in the first recitation period to stimu- 
late the necessary motive, be able doubtless to cover the 
steps of presentation and recall, and to advance well along 
into that of elaboration. In the second, beginning with 
a brief review, the remaining points in the step of elabora- 
tion would be developed and the story as a whole summar- 
ized by the children. At the end of this period, there 



262 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

would be assigned as seat work a study of the printed 
story with a view to seeing how Robinson actually made 
his pots and jars, and to giving oral expression to the 
story. The final recitation would then be devoted to the 
reading of the story. 

This plan is not only typical of deductive perceptual 
lessons in primary reading, but because of similarity be- 
tween the two, it illustrates also how to plan and present 
similar lessons in primary history; and from the nature 
of these subjects as they appear in the primary grades, 
they offer wide range for the use of deductive perceptual 
instruction. 

§ 5. Illustrative Inductive Conceptual Lesson Plans 

LESSON in arithmetic 
Based on Walsh-Suzzallo's Arithmetics, Practical Applications 

To Find a Given Per Cent of a Number 

Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 
Subject Matter Method 

1. To stimulate the desire to learn i. You have learned how to find 
how to find the part of a number a fractional part of a number, also 
when that part to be found is given how to find a decimal part. In the 
in terms of per cent. world of business, the part of a 

number to be taken or to be found is 
expressed usually in terms of per 
cent rather than in terms of common 
or decimal fractions. The business 
operations in which this is true are 
the more important ones and the 
ones with which we all have to do 
sooner or later. To know how to 
find a given per cent of a number is 
as helpful as to know how to find a 
fractional or decimal part. 



THE LESSON PLAN 



263 



2. Pupil's Aim: To learn how to 
find a given per cent of a given 
number. 

3. Teacher's Aim: To give to the 
child the knowledge and power 
needed to find any per cent of any 
number, and which will enable him 
to appreciate the arithmetical side 
of various business operations. 



2. If we take up this question, who 
will state our problem? 



Subject Matter 



Recall 



Method 



1. Review the definition of a deci- 
mal and the \sTiting and reading of 
hundredths, pp. 68, 103-104. 

2. Review the multiplication of a 
decimal by a decimal and solve prob- 
lems, pp. 106 and 178. 



3. Review the elements in prob- 
lems in multiplication and the rela- 
tions between them, pp. 9 and 15. 



1. Define a decimal fraction. 
Rapid drill in reading and writing 
decimals in hundredths. 

2. How is one decimal multiplied 
by another, or how is the decimal 
part of a number found? Rapid 
drill in finding the decimal part of a 
number. 

3. What terms are used to charac- 
terize the elements in a problem in 
multipUcation? What is the rela- 
tion between these elements? 



Subject Matter 



Presentation 



Method 



I. Meaning of per cent and its 
sign. Exercises, p. 202. 



2. Conversion of per cent into 
decimal. Exercises, p. 203. 



3. Meaning of base, rate, and per- 
centage as elements of problems of 
percentage. 



4. Find 5% of $100. 



1. Explanation by teacher of 
meaning of per cent and of its sign, 
and brief and rapid drill in reading 
per cents. 

2. Explanation by teacher of the 
expression of per cent in the form 
of a decimal, and rapid drill in con- 
verting different per cents into 
decimals. 

3. Explanation by teacher of 
meaning of base, rate, and percent- 
age, and rapid drill in giving the base, 
rate, and percentage of different 
problems. 

4. Lead pupil to express given per 
cent in form of decimal, and to pro- 



264 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 



5. Find 6 % of $250. 

6. Find 7% of $325. 



ceed as in finding the decimal part of 
a number. What are the given 
elements in the problem? The one 
to find? How was the given element 
found? 

5. Proceed as in 4. 

6. Proceed as in 4. 



Subject Matter 



Elaboration 



Method 



1. Base and rate elements given, 
percentage to be found. 

2. Given per cent converted into a 
decimal. 

3. Percentage found through pro- 
cess of multiplication of decimals. 



1. In each of the above problems, 
what elements were given? What 
one was to be found? 

2. In the solution of each of the 
above problems, into what was the 
given per cent converted? 

3. In the solution of the above 
problems, when the given per cent 
was expressed in form of a decimal, 
how was the desired decimal part 
found? 



Subject Matter 



Synthesis and Inference 



Method 



1. Svmimary of common elements 
in problems and in process. 

2. Rule: When the base and rate 
are given to find the percentage, 
convert the given per cent into a 
decimal and proceed to find the 
desired decimal part as in the multi- 
plication of decimals. 



1. What are the common ele- 
ments found in the problems solved 
and in the process used? 

2. The above problems are typical 
of all of their kind. When the base 
and rate are given, how can the per- 
centage be found? Or how can you 
find any per cent of any number? 



Subject Matter 



Verification and Use 



Method 



1. Apply knowledge gained to an 
explanation of tax rate, interest rate, 
insurance rate. 

2. Apply knowledge gained to 
solution of problems. Solve prob- 
lems 1-4, p. 204. 



1. What do we mean by interest 
rate? Tax rate? Etc. 

2. Solution and explanation of 
problems on part of pupils. 



THE LESSON PLAN 265 

The above is, in the main, illustrative of all inductive 
conceptual lesson plans, where the aim is the gaining of a 
class concept, and this is true whether in grammar, geog- 
raphy, or other elementary school subjects. Apart from 
arithmetic, it is, however, more especially illustrative of 
lessons in formal grammar. 

In form, it will be noted that inductive perceptual and 
conceptual lesson plans are similar. They are used, how- 
ever, somewhat differently. In teaching the above lesson 
in pursuance of the given plan, the teacher, at the end or 
for practical reasons preferably at the beginning of a pre- 
ceding class period, takes time to develop the motive for 
learning how to find any per cent of any number, and 
assigns as a seat task and as preparatory to the succeed- 
ing period the work in review as outlined in the step of 
recall. 

At the beginning of the first recitation upon the given 
topic, the teacher has the reasons for studying it and the 
aim of the lesson restated. He then advances to the work 
of recall and conducts it as a sharp, rapid review, the 
pupils having made appropriate preparation for this. The 
points as indicated in the step of presentation as well as of 
elaboration are then taken up one by one and developed, 
and the net results are brought together in the statement 
of the rule by the children. 

With this fixed in mind, the teacher assigns as seat 
work and as that of the succeeding recitation the problems 
as indicated, dividing the class into sections and holding 
each responsible for the solution and explanation of given 
problems; the following period is then devoted to the solu- 
tion and explanation of these and other problems in view 
of the rule derived. 



266 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

LESSON IN READING 

Based on Elson's Grammar School Fourth Reader 

YUSSOUF 



Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 



Subject Matter 



Method 



I. To arouse an interest in the 
forms of charity and in the effects of 
being charitable. 



2. Pupil's Aim: To learn what 
form of charity Lowell considered 
the highest, and to learn his idea of 
the effects of exercising charity. 

3. Teacher's Aim: To lead the 
children to a better appreciation of 
the highest form of charity and of 
the effects of exercising charity; also 
to an understanding and appreciative 
reading of Yussouf. 



1. What are some of the more 
important elements of character? 
Bring out through thought-provok- 
ing questions the idea that charity is 
one of the most important virtues. 

There are at least three forms of 
charity: it finds expression in alms 
giving, in tolerance toward the 
thoughts that others may have to- 
ward us, and in forgiving acts that 
have been done against us. (De- 
velop through questions and free 
discussion.) 

The exercise of charity not only 
benefits the one who receives, but 
the one who gives. (Raise the ques- 
tion of the effects of exercising 
charity.) 

Lowell has given us his idea 
of the highest form of charity and of 
the effects of exercising charity in the 
poem Yussouf. 

2. In studying this poem what 
points shall we keep in mind? 



THE LESSON TLAN 



267 



Subject Matter 



Recall 



Method 



1. Waste or arid land, at times 
intense heat, and great storms. 
People nomadic; chief need, food 
and shelter; primary virtue, hospi- 
tality. 

2. Gifts of Carnegie, charity of 
Lincoln, etc. 



1. Review the chief characteristics 
of the Sahara and of the American 
Desert; habits, needs, and virtues 
of desert people. 

2, Review known acts of charity. 



Subject Matter 



Presentation 



Method 



1. Desert land. 

2. As an outcast, "against whose 
life the bow of power is bent," and 
as one who "hath not where to lay 
his head." For food and shelter. 
Yussouf was called "The Good." 

3. " This tent is mine, but no more 
than it is God's." " Come in and be 
at peace." "Freely shalt thou par- 
take of all my stores as I of His." 

Shows Yussouf to be a God-loving 
and God-fearing man. 

4. "Here is gold, my swiftest 
horse is saddled for thy flight," etc. 
The stranger was softened and given 
new light and hope. 

"Nobleness enkindleth noble- 
ness." 
Both hospitable and charitable. 

5. "That inward light" 
"Which shines from all self- 
conquest." 

"Unto that Ibrahim who slew 
thy son." 
That he was susceptible to kind- 
ness and not wholly bad. 

6. To avenge the murder of his 
son. 



1. Where is the scene of this poem 
laid? Reasons? 

2. How did the stranger feel when 
he came to Yussouf's tent? For 
what did he come? Why did he 
come? 

3. How did Yussouf feel toward all 
he possessed? What welcome did 
he give the stranger? How freely 
was the stranger to partake? Why? 

What light does stanza two throw 
upon the character of Yussouf? 

4. What did Yussouf give the 
stranger on the morrow, and what 
did he say? What effect did such 
kindness have? 

How does the poet say that noble- 
ness is kindled? 

What kind of a man is Yussouf 
shown to be in stanza three? 

5. What light made the stranger's 
face grand? 

What confession did the stranger 
make? 

What light does stanza four throw 
upon the character of the stranger? 

6. What was the one black 
thought of Yussouf? 



268 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 



"Take thrice the gold for with 
thee," etc. 

By forgiving and making a better 
man of the murderer. 

"Balanced and just are all of God's 
decrees." 

Not wholly good. 

Made stranger a better and nobler 
man. 



How did the confession of the 
stranger affect Yussouf? 

How did Yussouf avenge his son? 

How did such a vengeance make 
Yussouf feel toward God? 

What Ught does stanza five throw 
upon the character of Yussouf? 

What effect do you think such 
vengeance had upon the stranger? 



Subject Matter 



Elaboration 



Method 



I. Yussouf 's charity even greater. 



2. On coming, the stranger felt as 
a refugee against whom the bow of 
power was bent; on leaving he was 
at peace with himself, with his fellow- 
men, and with God. 

3. Before the stranger came Yus- 
souf was not at peace; when the 
stranger left, he was at peace with 
himself, with his fellowmen and with 
God. 

4. Both were made better and 
nobler men. 

5. Yussouf exercised the highest 
form of charity in forgiving Ibrahim. 



1. Contrast Yussouf 's hospitaHty 
with the public gifts of Carnegie, his 
forgiveness of the stranger with 
charity of Lincoln toward his critics 
and the South. 

2. Contrast the feehng of the 
stranger on coming to Yussouf and 
on leaving him. 



3. Contrast the feeling of Yussouf 
before the stranger came and when 
he left. 



4. Compare the effects of Yus- 
souf 's charity upon the stranger and 
upon himself. 

5. Contrast the different acts of 
Yussouf. In which did he exercise 
the highest form of charity? Why? 



Subject Matter 



Syntedesis and Inference 



Method 



I. The highest form of charity is 
forgiving the evil acts of others 
toward us. Charity not only makes 
better the one exercising it, but also 
makes better the one toward whom 
it is shown. 



I. What, then, is the highest form 
of charity? What effects does the 
exercise of charity have upon the one 
exercising it and upon the one receiv- 
ing it? 



THE LESSON PLAN 269 



Subject Matter Verification and Use Method 

1. Viewing known charitable acts 1. Guide and direct children in 
in Ught of this conclusion: founding verifying the truth of this conclusion, 
of hospitals, free pubUc libraries. 

Analysis of effects of charitable acts 
of children: collecting clothing and 
flowers for Thanksgiving donations, 
Decoration Day, etc. 

2. Making conception gained real 2. Guide and direct children in 
in daily actions of children. appUcation of the conception gained 

to daily actions. 

3. Apphcation of ideas and appre- 3. Guide and direct children in 
ciation acquired in the oral reading oral reading of poem. 

of Yussouf. 



To teach the poem "Yussouf" according to the above 
plan, the teacher, at the end and preferably at the begin- 
ning of the preceding recitation, seeks to stimulate the 
desire and to fix the object to be kept in mind in the study 
of the poem. With the desire aroused and the aim deter- 
mined, he assigns the work as outlined in the step of recall. 
This is given by topics; for example, the habits of desert 
people; these are remembered and by older children 
copied into their notebooks, and become points for re- 
view. In like manner the work as indicated in the step 
of presentation is assigned topic by topic, and the children 
are expected to study the poem with reference to each of 
these, to reflect upon and be ready to discuss them. Such 
would be the assignment of the first lesson and the seat 
or home task of the children. 

At the beginning of the next period, the teacher has 
the aim of the study restated and proceeds to the work of 
recall. This is taken up topic by topic and the desired 
information brought to mind. With this done, advance 



270 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

is made to the step of presentation, and through the use 
of the pivotal questions formulated and others improvised, 
through free yet directed discussion of the pupils, the 
points of the poem as outlined in this step are brought out 
one by one. In a similar way the teacher proceeds to 
develop the larger underlying thoughts of the poem as 
indicated in the plan for the step of elaboration. At 
times the thoughts to be made clear in this step may be 
given as points for study along with the assignment made 
in connection with the steps of recall and presentation, 
but as a rule it is preferable to leave these to be developed 
in the class, after the teacher has made sure that the 
pupils are in a position to make the necessary comparisons 
and to draw the desired conclusions. With the larger 
thoughts of the poem thoroughly comprehended, the 
teacher leads the children to bring these together into 
one connected whole or generalization, and directs them 
in making the desired appHcation of the truth attained. 
With the children in possession of its central thought and 
with a greater or less appreciation of its beauty and atmos- 
phere, the teacher assigns, as seat or home work, the task 
of studying the poem with reference to oral expression; 
and reading it with appreciation constitutes the work of 
the final recitation. 

The above may be taken as typical of inductive concep- 
tual lesson plans for the teaching of Hterature in all the 
grammar grades. The teaching of Hterature in pursuance 
of such a plan throws the emphasis, as is readily seen, 
upon the getting of thought and feeling and upon the 
development of appreciation; whereas reading as an exer- 
cise in oral expression is given a minor place. Instruction 
in pursuance of such a plan involves two distinct, though 



THE LESSON PLAN 271 

related, considerations of a given selection. The first of 
these may be termed the silent study, that is, the study 
of the selection to gain the thought and to get into its 
spirit and atmosphere — in short, to gain an appreciation 
of the selection as literature. The second follows and may 
be termed the oral study, that is, a study of the selec- 
tion with a view to giving appropriate expression to the 
thoughts and feelings embodied therein. Thus to teach 
the reading of the grades would change the present point 
of emphasis and the present method of procedure. How- 
ever that may be, the above method is the one that must 
be pursued, at least with worthy selections, if the reading 
of the grades is to contribute its just share to the realiza- 
tion of the aim of elementary education, if it is to be 
brought into conformity with inductive conceptual learn- 
ing and made to comply with our best views upon the 
psychology of expression. 

LESSON IN HISTORY 
Based on Thompson's History of the United States 

Plymouth Colony 

Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 
Subject Matter Method 

I. To arouse the desire to learn i. Where is Plymouth Rock and 

more about the life, character, and why is it so famous? What was the 
ideals of the early Puritans. Mayflower and why is it so noted? 

From whom did we get the custom of 
observing Thanksgiving Day? What 
is meant by being Puritanic? From 
whence came the Congregational 
Church? Our idea of the town- 
meeting? Our conception of Sab- 
bath observance? We should be 
able to answer these questions more 



272 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 



2. Pupil's Aim: To study the 
founding and development of the 
Plymouth Colony in order to learn 
more about the hfe, character, and 
ideals of the early Puritans. 

3. Teacher's Aim: To lead the 
pupils to a fuller knowledge of 
the life, character, and ideals of the 
early Piuritans in order to lay the 
foundation for an appreciation of 
American Hfe and ideals. 



intelligently, if we knew more about 
the life, character, and ideals of the 
early Puritans. 

2. We can learn about them best 
through a study of the Plymouth 
Colony. If we study the founding 
and development of this colony, 
how may our primary object be 
stated? 



Subject Matter 



Recall 



Method 



1. Review motive for settlement 
of Virginia. §§ 48, 50, 52. 

2. Review character of Jamestown 
settlers. §§ 52, 55, 61, 67. 

3. Review hardships of early 
settlers. §§ 52, 54, 57, 63. 

4. Review form of government in 
1619. § 60. 

5. Review religious life of James- 
town settlers. §§ 65, 71. 



1. What were the motives leading 
to the settlement of Virginia? 

2. What was the character of the 
early settlers of Jamestown? 

3. Describe the hardships of the 
early settlers of Virginia. 

4. What were the essential fea- 
tures of the government of Virginia 
in 1619. 

5. Characterize the religious life 
of the early Virginians. 



Subject Matter 



Presentation 



Method 



1. Religious conditions in England 
in reign of James I. § 67. 

2. The Separatists. § 107. 

3. Escape to Holland and life 
there. § 107. 

4. Reasons for leaving Holland 
and for coming to America. § 107. 

5. Conditions under which they 
came to America. § 108. 



1. What were the religious condi- 
tions in England in the reign of 
James I? 

2. Characterize the religious posi- 
tion of the Separatists. 

3. Why did the Pilgrims go to 
Holland? Describe their Ufe there. 

4. Why did the Pilgrims leave 
Holland? Why did they come to 
America? 

5. What were the conditions under 
which the Puritans came to America? 



THE LESSON PLAN 



273 



6. The character of the settlers. 
§§ 107, 108. 

7. The Mayflower Compact. § 109. 



8. Settlement and hardships. §§ 
no, III, 112, 114. 

9. Form of government and politi- 
cal life. §§ 113, 118. 

10. Form of religion and religious 
life. §§117,118. 

11. Union with Massachusetts Col- 
ony. § 113. 



6. What was the character of the 
Puritan settlers? 

7. What are the more essential 
points of the Mayflower Compact 
and what is its significance? 

8. Describe the settlement and 
hardships of the Pilgrims. 

9. Characterize the form of gov- 
ernment and describe the political 
life of the early Puritans. 

10. Characterize their form of reli- 
gion and describe their religious life. 

11. Reasons for uniting Plymouth 
Colony with Massachusetts Colony? 



Subject Mailer 



Elaboration 



Method 



1. Motives of Virginians, eco- 
nomic, of Puritans, political and 
rehgious. 

2. Virginians adventurous, wealth- 
seeking; Puritans God-fearing, 
liberty-loving. 

3. Hardships of Pilgrims as great 
as those of Virginians. 

4. Government of Pilgrims even 
more democratic than that of 
Virginians. 

5. Religion of Pilgrims, Congre- 
gational, of Virginians, Episcopal; 
heart and center of Puritan life, 
minor matter to Virginians. 



1. Contrast the motives of the 
early Virginians with those of the 
early Pilgrims for making settlement. 

2. Contrast the character of the 
early Virginians with that of the 
early Pilgrims. 

3. Which suffered the greater 
hardships, the early Virginians or 
early Puritans? 

4. Compare the political life and 
ideals of the early Virginians and the 
early Puritans with reference to 
democracy and place in life. 

5. Contrast the religious life of 
early Virginians and Puritans and 
the place of rehgion in the Ufe of each. 



Subject Matter 



Synthesis and Inference 



Method 



I. Summary of main points with 
reference to motives for settlement, 
the life, the political and religious 
ideals of the Puritans. 



I. Give a summary of the chief 
thoughts gained with reference to the 
motives for settlement, the Ufe, 
the poHtical and religious ideals of 
the Puritans. 



274 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

Subject Matter Verification and Use Method 

1. Apply knowledge gained to the i. Explain the origin of the Con- 
explanation of the origin of the Con- gregational Church. Explain the 
gregational Church, town-meeting, existence of our present town-meet- 
ideas of democratic government, ing. To what extent has the Puritan 
Sabbath observance, etc. conception of Sabbath observation 

influenced our own ideas? 

2. Apply knowledge gained to 2. Guide and direct the reading of 
reading, as collateral work. The the selections suggested, as well as 
Landing of the Pilgrims, The Pilgrim others, that the children may utihze 
Fathers, Miles Standish, etc. the knowledge gained in reading and 

understanding these, and may obtain 
thereby further insight into the life, 
character, and ideals of the Puritans. 



The foregoing inductive conceptual lesson plan in his- 
tory is similar to the corresponding one in literature and 
is used much in the same manner. The teacher develops 
the motive and leads the pupils to a statement of the aim. 
He then assigns to the class as a whole, for seat or home 
study, the work as outlined in the steps of recall and pres- 
entation; individual pupils may make reports on special 
topics. The children use their texts and the materials 
suggested in making the reviews indicated and in acquiring 
the desired facts. This assignment is gone over point by 
point in the succeeding period and the special reports 
heard. With the reviews made — which supply a partial 
basis of interpretation — and with the needed facts fixed 
clearly in mind, the teacher seeks, in the same or following 
period, through the use of problem-setting questions, to 
bring out the significance of the given materials; he directs 
the children in bringing the more important aspects of their 
meaning into a thought-whole and guides them in applying 
the insights gained to the explanation and interpretation 



THE LESSON PLAN 275 

of present social conditions and problems. As suggested 
in connection with the plan in Uterature, assignment may 
be made of the work as prescribed for the steps of elabora- 
tion, synthesis, and application, and the pupils may be 
required to prepare to recite upon it. As a rule, however, 
it will be found best to leave this to be done in the class. 
The above plan is not only typical of inductive con- 
ceptual lessons in history, but illustrates equally well like 
lessons in geography, where the object is the development 
of an individual concept — for example, of wheat raising 
in North Dakota, of stock raising in Texas, or of the 
climate of the Central States. Such geography lessons are 
not only similarly planned — barring the difference in the 
nature of the subject matter — but also similarly used. 

§ 6. Illustrative Deductive Conceptual Lesson Plans 

LESSON IN grammar 
Based on Hyde's Two-Book Course in English, Book Two 

The Noun Clause and Its Uses 



Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 
Subject Matter Method 

1. To arouse the desire to know i. We have learned to define the 
the different kinds of clauses and clause as a "division of a sentence 
how each is used. containing a verb with its subject." 

There are various kinds of clauses, 
each having its distinct function in 
language, and skill in their use implies 
a knowledge of each kind. That you 
may gain this knowledge and skill, 
we shall take up the study of the 
different kinds of clauses. 

2. Pupil's Aim : To learn about the 2. The subject as a whole is too 
noun clause and how it is used. large for one lesson, so we will begin 

3. Teacher's Aim: To bring the with the noun clause. 



276 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

pupils to an appreciation of the 
character and function of the noun 
clause. 



Subject Matter 



Presentation 



Method 



1. "That such men should give 
prejudicial views of America is not a 
matter of surprise." "That man 
is more than mortal is true." 

2. "I confess these stories, for a 
time, put an end to my fancies." "I 
am aware that a skillful illustrator 
of the immortal bard would have 
swelled the materials." 

3. " The terms of admission to this 
spectacle are, that he have a certain 
solid and intelligible way of living." 
"The true sign of character is, that a 
man Uve as he preaches." 

4. "Cecil's saying of Sir Walter 
Raleigh, *I know that he can toil 
terribly,' is an electric touch." " The 
slogan of the American Revolution — 
life, Hberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness are the unaUenable rights of 
man — has circled the world." 

5. "At length he reached to where 
the ravine had opened through the 
cliff." "The army pushed forward 
to where the English had previously 
camped." 



1. These sentences, as well as the 
following, are to be written upon the 
blackboard in full view of the class. 
What is the clause in the first sen- 
tence? In the second? 

2. Proceed here and in the follow- 
ing as in I. 



Subject Matter 



Recall 



Method 



1. Review definition of a noun, 
p. 9. 

2. Review uses of nouns: 

a. As subject of verb, pp. 46, 
183-184. 

b. As object of verb, pp. 46, 
189-190. 



1. Define a noun and give illustra- 
tions. 

2. Illustrate the use of a noun as 
subject of a verb, as object of a verb, 
as complement, in apposition, as 
object of a preposition. 



THE LESSON PLAN 



277 



c. As complement, pp. 105-106, 
184-185. 

d. In apposition, pp. 185-186. 

e. As object of preposition, 
pp. 46, 190-191. 



Subject Matter 



Elaboration 



Method 



I. Use of noun clause as subject of i. In the first group of sentences, 



verb. 



2. Use as object of verb. 

3. Use as complement. 

4. Use in apposition. 

5. Use as object of preposition. 



how are the clauses used or what 
function do they perform? Con- 
trast this use with that of the noun 
as subject of verb. What is one use 
of this kind of a clause? 

2. Proceed here and in the follow- 
ing as in I. 



Subject Matter 



Synthesis and Inference 



Method 



I. Definition of noun clause. 



2. Uses of noun clauses. 



1. What is the common character- 
istic of the above clauses? These 
are typical of noun clauses. Define 
a noun clause. 

2. What are the different uses of 
the above clauses? These are illus- 
trative of the more important uses 
of the noun clause. In what ways, 
then, are noun clauses used? 



Subject Matter 



Verification and Use 



MetJiod 



1. Verification of definition and 
uses of noun clause, as deduced, 
p. 239. 

2. Selection and designation of 
noun clauses in sentences. Sentences 
pp. 240-242. 

3. Writing sentences by children 
illustrating uses of noun clause. 



1. Study definition and uses as 
given, compare with results obtained, 
and correct where necessary. 

2. Select the noun clause in the 
first sentence and tell how it is used. 
Etc. 

3. Read your first sentence, give 
the noun clause, and tell how it is 
used. Etc. 



278 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

To teach this lesson as planned, the teacher, at the end 
or at the beginning of a previous period, develops the 
motive for the study and has the aim of the lesson formu- 
lated. As seat or home work, he then assigns the reviews 
as indicated in the step of recall. On the following day, 
after having the aim restated, he proceeds to have the 
children pick out the clauses in the sentences as given 
under subject matter in the step of presentation. These 
sentences as suggested are to be written in full view of the 
school. With the clauses in these determined, the teacher 
takes up the reviews as assigned. With the facts to be 
given meaning presented and the basis of this brought to 
the mind of the pupil, he proceeds to deduce point by 
point, as indicated in the step of elaboration, the different 
uses of the noun clause. After this is done, the results are 
drawn together, as the work of the step of synthesis and 
inference, into a formal statement and these conclusions 
verified through a comparison with the text. At the end 
of this period, there is assigned as seat or home work the 
task of picking out the clauses in given sentences, of 
determining their use, and of writing other sentences. 
The second recitation is then devoted to restating, as cor- 
rected, the conclusions attained in the previous period, 
and to characterizing the use of the clauses in the sen- 
tences assigned and in those written by the children. 

This deductive conceptual lesson plan not only illustrates 
how such lessons in grammar are to be plaimed and taught, 
but it is also typical — barring slight variations arising 
from differences in content — of similar ones in arithmetic. 
Of the subjects taught in the public school, these two afford 
the widest range for the use of the deductive conceptual 
method of instruction, and nothing else would so improve 



THE LESSON PLAN 



279 



the present teaching of these branches as to make a con- 
siderable portion of it deductive in spirit and in truth. 



LESSON IN GEOGRAPHY 
Based on Tarr and McMurry's Complete Geography 

Rainfall of the Western States 



Development of Motive and Statement of Aim 
Subject Matter Method 



I. To arouse a desire to learn 
about the rainfall of the Western 
States. 



2. Pupil's Aim: To study about 
the rainfall of the Western States in 
order to see why the country between 
the Cascade, Sierra Nevada, and the 
Rocky Mountains is so Uke a desert. 

3. Teacher's Aim: To bring the 
children to a knowledge of the rain- 
fall of the Western States that they 
may be able to appreciate the dif- 
ferences in climate, in industries, 
and in life. 



1. What do we mean by the Amer- 
ican Desert? Where is it? Why is 
the country between the Cascade, 
Sierra Nevada, and the Rocky 
Mountains so desert-like? Why so 
little rain? The answer to this ques- 
tion necessitates a study of the rain- 
fall of the Western States. 

2. If we take up this topic, how 
may your aim be stated? 



Subject Matter 



Presentation 



Method 



1. Proximity of Western States to 
the Pacific Ocean. Fig. 131. 

2. Principal mountain ranges and 
highest altitude. Fig. 131; Appen- 
dix, p. ix. 

3. Principal plateaus and alti- 
tudes. Fig. 131, 43; Appendix, p. ix. 



1. Upon what ocean do the West- 
ern States border? 

2. Name and locate the principal 
mountain ranges of this section and 
give their highest altitude. 

3. What arc the princii)al plateaus 
of this section and what is the alti- 
tude of each? 



28o PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 



4. Prevailing direction of winds on 
north Pacific side and on south 
Pacific side. Fig. 249, 254. 

5. Breadth of section. Fig. 131. 



4. What is the prevaiUng direction 
of wind on north Pacific side? On 
south Pacific side? 

5. What is the breadth of this 
section on the north? On the south? 



Subject Matter 



Recall 



Method 



1. Review of general conditions 
determining rainfall: proximity to 
ocean, altitude, prevailing direction 
of winds, pp. 220-221. 

2. General conditions of heavy, 
moderate, Hght, and scant rainfall. 



I. What are the general conditions 
determining rainfall? 



2. What are the general conditions 
of heavy rainfall? Of moderate? 
Of Ught? Of scant? 



Subject Matter 



Elaboration 



Method 



I. Heavy rainfall on northern 
coast as efifect of proximity to ocean 
and prevaiHng direction of wind. 



2. Moderate and light rainfall in 
interior of northern section as effect 
of distance from ocean, altitude, and 
prevailing direction of winds. 

3. Moderate rainfall upon south- 
ern coast as effect of proximity to 
ocean and prevaiUng direction of 
winds. 

4. Light and scant rainfall in in- 
terior of southern section as effect of 
distance from ocean, altitude, and 
prevaiHng direction of winds. 



5. Direction of prevailing winds as 
chief cause of differences in rainfall. 



1. Contrast the conditions on the 
northern coast with those essential 
to heavy rainfall. In view of the 
essential similarity, what must be 
the nature of the rainfall? 

2. Contrast the conditions in the 
interior of northern section with 
those of moderate and light rainfall. 
In view of the similarity, what must 
be the character of the rainfall? 

3. Contrast conditions on southern 
coast with those imphed in moderate 
rainfall. What must be its charac- 
ter there? 

4. Contrast the conditions as 
found in the interior of southern 
section with those of Hght and scant 
rainfaU. In view of similarity, 
what must be the rainfall of this 
section? 

5. What is the chief cause of the 
difference in the rainfaU of north and 
south coast sections? Of north and 
south interior sections? 



THE LESSON PLAN 281 



Subject Matter Synthesis and Inference MelJiod 

I. Summary of deductions with i. In view of proximity to ocean, 

reference to rainfall in Western prevailing direction of winds, and 
States. altitude, characterize the rainfall of 

different sections of the Western 
States, 

Subject Matter Verification and Use Method 

1. Verification of deductions i. Reading or study of authorita- 
through study of facts as given in tive facts and a comparison of these 
text. Fig. 252; pp. 133-135. with those derived through deduc- 
tion, and the correction of inferences 
where necessary. 

2. Explanation of the American 2. Why is the country between the 
Desert. Cascade, Sierra Nevada, and Rocky 

Mountains so desert-like? 

3. Use of insights gained in future 
explanations of climate, industries, 
and Ufe of Western States. 



In view of our discussion of how to use the deductive 
conceptual lesson plan in grammar, only an additional 
word with reference to its use is needed here. In the 
grammar lesson, it will be remembered, the facts to be 
given meaning were brought to the pupils by the teacher, 
and this is to a large extent true also in similar lessons in 
arithmetic. In this mode of instruction in geography, 
and in so far as it is applicable to history, it will be found 
preferable, as a rule, to let the pupils gather the facts for 
themselves, either through direct observation or from the 
printed page. Just those to be acquired in a given case 
may be determined by the class as a class exercise, or they 
may, where this seems best, be indicated by the teacher as 
a part of the assignment, and their acquisition forms — 
along with the review as indicated in the step of recall — 



282 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

the seat or home work. In teaching the lesson, the teacher 
then follows the plan step by step and point by point, and 
the treatment of a topic such as the above need not con- 
sume more than one recitation. 

§ 7. Lesson Plans Abridged and Unabridged 

The above lesson plans cover, it will be observed, the 
gamut of the more important branches in the elementary 
school. By using these as types, it may readily be inferred 
how a lesson in a subject in which an illustrative lesson 
is not given may be planned and this plan used. It will 
also be observed that the above plans are based upon 
texts now in use in our schools and upon the subject matter 
as found in them. For this reason they are more truly 
illustrative of how lessons in actual school subjects are to 
be planned and presented, if teaching in the elementary 
school is to be brought into conformity with the different 
general methods of elementary instruction. 

Each step in the above plans rests, as will be noted, 
upon a given step in the corresponding general method. 
Like the learning processes and like the general methods 
derived from these processes, the lesson plan may be 
abridged — that is, the work of elaboration may be planned 
to be done in connection with the step of presentation and 
vice versa; or, the work of the step of recall, or of inference 
and synthesis, may be omitted. Just the abridgment that 
may well be made in a given plan and consequently in the 
presentation of a given lesson depends upon the child and 
upon what is being taught. As a rule, however, if the 
lesson is difficult, teaching is most effective when the plan 
is unabridged — that is, when provision is made for the 
work of each step as conditioned by the given general 



THE LESSON PLAN 283 

method, and when the lesson is taught step by step and 
point by point as planned. 

Readings 

Charters, Methods of Teaching, pp. 415-434. 
Earhart, Types of Teaching, pp. 220-263. 
McMurry, Method of the Recitation, pp. 257-287. 
Strayer, The Teaching Process, pp. 167-223. 



CHAPTER X 
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

1. Education is a function of society, and the educational 
system of a given society must be such as will provide for its 
existence, development, and perfection. 

2. That system of education which provides for the exist- 
ence, development, and perfection of a given society is at the 
same time the system which will provide for the highest mode 
of life, the highest development and self-realization of its 
members. 

3. The giving of appropriate expression, control, and direc- 
tion to the will, or the development of the will, constitutes the 
primary work of education, the end to which every phase of it 
must contribute and be subordinated. 

4. The development of the intellect is the secondary work 
of education, and the intellect must be so developed with respect 
to both form and content and only so developed as to give the 
will the necessary expression and the desired determi- 
nation. 

5. Education must seek, in each period of child life, to 
give to the will that expression and determination and to the 
intellect that form and content appropriate to the development 
of the distinctive will and intellectual characteristics of the 
period, appropriate to secure a normal will and intellectual 
development in the succeeding one, and appropriate to secure 
the will and intellectual development desired. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 2^5 

§ I. TiiE Problem 

The second means through which the aim of education 
is realized is school organization. As a problem, the 
organization of the school is a difficult one, and its solu- 
tion, even were we able to solve it, would carry us far 
afield. For our purpose, it may be restricted and stated 
thus: In view of the aim and principles of elementary edu- 
cation, what are the factors entering in to condition the 
organization of the elementary school, and in what ways 
is this determined by each? 

§ 2. Factors Conditioning the Organization of the 
Elementary School 

The first of these factors is the child. The child is a 
factor because he is the subject of education and it is in 
his life that its aim is to be realized. Society is another 
factor, because social needs and ends are conserved by 
education and it is in the life of the social whole that the 
purposes of the school are to be actualized. Instruction 
is a third, because it is the primary means through which 
educational work is accomplished. 

Although the child, society, and instruction are factors 
in conditioning the organization of the elementary school, 
the primary factor is the given aim of elementary education. 
It is in the light of this that every part of school organiza- 
tion should be tested; it is this that should give meaning 
and unity to its every portion. Indeed the child, society, 
and instruction are conditioning factors therein only in 
so far as they must be taken into account in the attainment 
of the purposes of the elementary school. 



286 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

§ 3. The Child as a Factor 

The claims of the child upon the organization of elemen- 
tary education may be divided into those imposed by his 
physical and those imposed by his psychical nature. Al- 
though these claims are not to be viewed as separate, for 
purposes of clearness it is well to consider them apart. 

I. Claims Imposed by Physical Nature and Implica- 
tions. — The claims registered by the physical nature of 
the child, in view of the first two of the above principles, 
is that the school be so organized as to conserve his health 
and foster his physical development as conditioned by the 
working aim of the given elementary school. 

This claim has to a greater or less extent been ignored; 
but with the growing appreciation of the value of health, 
with the increasing demands of modern life upon it, with 
greater insight into the relation between health and physi- 
cal development, and between these and intellectual work 
and psychical development, more and more pressing has 
grown the demand that health receive consideration. 

In view of this claim and in view of what is implied 
in satisfying it, there have arisen three distinct problems: 
the hygiene of the school plant, of instruction, and of the 
child. 

Under the problem of the hygiene of the school plant 
are to be included questions of temperature, heating, 
lighting, ventilation, construction, and care of school 
buildings, also the hygiene of school furniture, apparatus, 
and fixtures — in short, all that has to do with the material 
make-up and environment of the school in so far as this 
affects the physical well-being of children. 

With the problem of the hygiene of instruction are to 



ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 287 

be associated questions such as the length of the school 
year, of the school day, of the recitation period, the ar- 
rangement of the daily program, home study, the hygiene 
of the diflerent school subjects, the length and distribution 
of recesses, — in a word, questions arising in connection 
with instruction having to do with health and physical 
welfare. 

To the problem of the hygiene of the pupil there belong 
questions with reference to the defects and care of the 
teeth and of the sense organs, problems of normal and 
arrested development, of habits of posture and of move- 
ment, of personal habits, exercise, food, clothing, and of 
the diseases of children. Of the questions injected of late 
into school organization, none have been studied more 
carefully and with better results than these. Such ques- 
tions have not been taken up, however, merely because of 
scientific interest or with the intent of making a hospital 
of the school, but that certain of the diseases and defects of 
children may be prevented and corrected. 

2. Claim Imposed by Psychical Nature and Implications. 
— The claim registered by the psychical nature of the child, 
in view more especially of the last three of the above 
principles, is that the school be so organized as to foster 
at each period of life his will and intellectual develop- 
ment. 

The imposition of this claim has given rise, on the one 
hand, to the question of the character of school life and 
conduct, which we will discuss later, and it has given rise, 
on the other, to the problem which, for the want of a 
better term, may be designated the statics of instruction. 
Belonging to the statics of instruction may be grouped 
questions with reference to the length of the course of 



288 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

study, standards of efficiency, school losses, withdrawals, 
and '^repeaters," questions of gradation and classification, 
methods of promotion, size of classes, individual or class 
teaching, slow and fast grades, instruction by grades or 
departments. 

It is not our purpose to enter into a detailed study of 
the questions arising from the claim imposed upon the 
organization of the school by either the physical or psychical 
nature of the child. It suffices in this connection if the 
teacher appreciates the source of these problems and recog- 
nizes that the basis and test of their solution and conse- 
quently of the final organization of the school in these 
respects is the physical and pyschical development of the 
child as conditioned by the purposes of elementary 
education. 

§ 4. Instruction as a Factor 

Instruction, though itself a means, requires, neverthe- 
less, on its part, that the school be so organized as to make 
possible the teaching, both on the side of subject matter 
and of method, implied in carrying on the work of the 
elementary school. In view of this claim, instruction 
enters in as a factor in conditioning the size and organiza- 
tion of classes, standards of class order, distribution of 
time, equipment to be supplied, and even into condi- 
tioning the construction of the plant itself. By reason 
thereof, the organization of a reading or of an arithmetic 
class, and a class in drawing, experimental science, or 
hand-work will differ, as will also the size of such classes, 
standards of class order, and equipment. It is in recogni- 
tion of this claim that one room of a modern school 
building is a recitation room, another a laboratory or a 



ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 289 

workshop, and still another, a drawing room. A school may 
therefore be said, from this point of view, to be appropri- 
ately organized when that diversity of classes is rendered 
possible, that diversity of materials supplied, and the 
school plant so constructed as to render possible the giving, 
under the most favorable conditions, of that instruction 
requisite to the accompUshment of the aim of the given 
school. 

§ 5. Society as a Factor 

1. The Claim Imposed. — Society as the final condi- 
tioning factor requires, in view more especially of the 
first of the above principles, that the school be so organized 
that both the spirit dominating it and the principles con- 
trolling behavior within it are typical of the life of the 
larger social whole, the interests of which are to be conserved 
by the given school. 

This claim, like the one registered by the physical nature 
of the child, has to a greater or less extent been ignored. 
But with increasing insight into the significance of learning 
through living, it is becoming more and more apparent 
that the school in which the social spirit is disregarded, 
in which no provision for genuine social activity is made, 
in which no opportunity for practicing the social virtues 
or of living socially is offered, is in nowise adapted to pre- 
pare the child, upon leaving it, to enter into the larger 
social Hfe of his people as an appreciative and active 
member. 

2. Implications. — To bring into the elementary school 
the spirit and principles of social life implies making it 
a topical social institution, creating in it typical social 
situations. For it is only as the school is made a typical 



290 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

social institution that the child catches the social spirit 
and makes this, of his own will, the dominant temper of his 
life; and it is only as the child is brought to meet typical 
social situations that he is able to understand the origin 
and necessity of the principles of the larger social order, 
and of his own accord to adopt these as the guiding prin- 
ciples of his conduct. 

The making of life within the elementary school typical 
of the highest and best in the larger life outside of the 
school implies the socialization of methods of instruction, 
the socialization of the recitation, and the socialization of 
school conduct. 

The socialization of methods of instruction involves, on 
the one hand, the development of a social motive on the 
part of the child for the acquisition of knowledge and, on 
the other, the giving of free opportunity to him to use 
this knowledge in cooperative activity. 

The motives for gaining knowledge under present 
methods are exceedingly individualistic. Appeal is made 
to personal profit and advantage, to affection for the teacher, 
to fear, pride, emulation, and rivalry. The resulting mo- 
tives are not wholly bad, but, taken as a whole, they are 
inadequate for the purposes of genuine education. They 
are external and too often break down with a change of 
external conditions. Over against this appeal to the 
individualistic instincts and to the selfish aspects of human 
nature, methods which are social in their import seek to 
develop in the child a desire to acquire knowledge because 
of its relation to the work of his class or to the life of the 
community of which he is a member; they seek to render 
motives that are self-centered subordinate to those centered 
in others, to render motives arising from a desire for per- 



ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 291 

sonal advancement subordinate to those springing from a 
desire for the betterment of the social whole. 

Present methods likewise place the emphasis upon the 
use of knowledge for personal ends rather than upon its 
use in mutual aid. The fault here is not that its employment 
to individual profit is emphasized, but that its use in social 
service is not deemed of as great importance. Under pres- 
ent methods, in so far as opportunity is given, the child 
employs his knowledge to make a bow and arrow for him- 
self, to gain personal insight into a phenomenon of nature, 
a piece of literature, or into the solution of a class of prob- 
lems, but little or no place is made for the social applica- 
tion of the same. Indeed, so thoroughly indoctrinated is 
the school in the thought that the child should keep 
what he knows to himself and use it only for his own 
advancement, ''that for one child to help another in his 
task has become a school crime, . . . mutual assistance, 
instead of being the most natural form of cooperation and 
association, becomes a clandestine effort to relieve one's 
neighbor of his proper duties." The normal outcome of 
this is a spirit of selfishness. In contrast, methods that 
are socialized make large place in the school for the 
employment of knowledge in mutual aid, in cooperative con- 
structions, creations, or productions, in the accomplish- 
ment of which each is encouraged to perform his part, to 
make his contribution. To aid others, to join in social 
enterprise is thus made a personal privilege as well as a 
school duty, and the use of knowledge in service to others, 
in the advancement of school ends, is thereby fostered. 

Giving methods social import has its influence upon the 
recitation, but the socialization of the recitation involves, 
in addition, the making of it primarily a period of cooper- 



292 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

ative activity in the attainment of definite results, in the 
achievement of which each pupil shares in the contribu- 
tion of every other, adds his own, and is judged in the 
light thereof. 

We fail to recognize, writes Dewey, how individualistic 
in spirit the present recitation is. ''Imagine forty children 
all engaged in reading the same books, and in preparing 
and reciting the same lessons day after day. Suppose 
that this constitutes by far the larger part of their work, 
and that they are continually judged from the standpoint 
of what they are able to take in in a study hour, and to 
reproduce in a recitation hour. There is next to no oppor- 
tunity here for any social or moral division of labor. 
There is no opportunity for each child to work out some- 
thing specifically his own, which he may contribute to 
the common stock, while he, in turn, participates in the 
productions of others. All are set to do exactly the same 
work and turn out the same results. The social spirit is 
not cultivated — in fact, in so far as this method gets in 
its work, it gradually atrophies for lack of use. . . . The 
child is born with a natural desire to give out, to do, and 
that means to serve. When this tendency is not made use 
of, when conditions are such that other motives are sub- 
stituted, the reaction against the social spirit is much larger 
than we have any idea of — especially when the burden 
of the work, week after week, and year after year, falls 
upon this side. But lack of cultivation of the social spirit 
is not all. Positively individualistic motives and standards 
are cultivated. . . . Just because all are doing the same 
work, and are judged (both in recitation and in examina- 
tion) with reference to grading and to promotion, not from 
the standpoint of their motives or the ends which they are 



ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 293 

trying to reach, the feeling of superiority is unduly ap- 
pealed to. The children are judged with reference to their 
capacity to present the same external set of facts and ideas. 
As a consequence, they must be placed in the hierarchy on 
the basis of this purely objective standard. . . . The child 
is (thereby) prematurely launched into the region of indi- 
vidualistic competition, and this in a direction where compe- 
tition is least applicable, viz., in intellectual and spiritual 
matters, whose law is cooperation and participation." 

Over against this is the recitation which is social in its 
influence, where each pupil within limits has his particular 
contribution to make. One provides, for example, certain 
illustrative materials, arranges for certain experiments, 
another brings to the class this or that portion of the re- 
view, another makes special preparation upon this or that 
point in the subject under consideration and presents the 
same. Or, this group solves and explains for the remainder 
of the class these problems, that group, still others. Or, this 
pupil makes this part of a given whole, that one, another, 
and still another, a third part, and a dam, forest, or wigwam 
is constructed. Or, this child is the big bear, that one, the 
mother bear, this one, the little bear, a final one, little 
Silver Locks, and the story of Silver Locks and the Three 
Bears is dramatized. Thus, in a hundred ways the recita- 
tion may be made into a period of cooperative and social 
creation, production, or construction. Individualistic mo- 
tives are thereby overshadowed, effort becomes character- 
istically social, the child is no longer judged by his fellows 
and his teacher by what he has personally absorbed and 
achieved, — an individualistic standard, — but by his 
motives, by the quaHty of the work done, and by what he 
has contributed to the common purpose, — a social stand- 



294 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

ard, — and he is not only thus habituated to social co- 
operation, but there is developed in him a genuine social 
spirit, that spirit which makes one alive to his duties to 
his fellows and readily disposed to join with others in the 
attainment of social advantages. 

Though the socialization of methods of instruction and 
of the recitation has its effect upon school behavior, the 
complete socialization of school conduct implies making 
the same principles basic in the life of the school as are 
basic in that outside of it. 

Of the principles fundamental in social life and appli- 
cable to the life of the school, the first to be cited is coopera- 
tion, the essence of which is mutual helpfulness. Akin 
to cooperation are regularity, punctuality, and industry.^ 
That these are minor principles of social action is appar- 
ent. Note the regularity in all modes of individual and 
public activity, witness the punctuality required of all in 
whatever field they may labor, consider the industry 
imposed upon one by modern conditions. 

Social life of any but the lowest order implies a second 
principle, — that of the equality of persons. This prin- 
ciple is especially applicable to the school, as it manifests 
itself in uniform and general modes of regarding the indi- 
vidual and more particularly in the corollary, — polite- 
ness, — that is, the treatment of each individual with 
courtesy without regard to present station, condition, or 
circumstances. 

Social life of a still higher order implies also the equality 

^ It is important at this point to keep in mind the distinction between a 
principle of action and the virtue resulting from conforming life thereto. 
This is at times difficult to do, as often the^same term is used to designate 
both the principle and the derived virtue. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 295 

of rights and of opportunities. This principle finds ex- 
pression in the subordinate ideas of the right to property 
and its consequent sacredness, the right to happiness, and 
in the duty of honesty and of truthfukiess. 

In social life of the highest type, there is implied, in addi- 
tion, the supremacy of the law. Without this principle, 
there can be no equality of persons or of opportunities, 
no genuine cooperation. Companion to law is justice, the 
rendering to each according to his rights and deeds, and 
not according to his possibilities, wishes, or unrealized 
aspirations. 

But social life that rests upon the supremacy of the law 
and upon absolute justice is cold and heartless. Conse- 
quently, above and beyond the supremacy of the law and 
of absolute justice, there is essential to the very highest 
type of social cooperation the principle of charity, — charity 
that giveth and demandeth not in return. This principle 
underlies and gives color to our whole social fabric and 
finds expression in personal helpfulness and in pubHc 
institutions of philanthropy. Related thereto are sym- 
pathy, helpfulness, liberaHty, and toleration. 

The above are, in the main, the larger principles of social 
life, which are applicable, and which in their particular 
national expression must be made cardinal in the life of 
the elementary school, if school conduct is to be socialized. 

In doing this, they cannot be imposed upon the school 
from without, nor should they be presented as coming from 
the teacher, or as depending upon or vanishing with him, 
and, above all, they should not be presented as belonging 
only to the school. For in making them basic in school 
life, the child must be brought to see that these principles 
arise out of the nature of that Ufe and are necessary to it; 



296 PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

he must be brought to see that they abide though the teacher 
changes, that they are not only principles of school conduct 
but also of conduct in business, the home, the '' social 
circle," the community, the state, and the church; he must 
be brought to understand that obedience thereto is the 
condition of attaining the fullest and richest individual 
experiences. In this way only is life in the school to be 
made real and to be brought into relation with that of 
the social whole; in this way only will the child come, 
through the school, to an appreciation of the fundamental 
principles of life, and to an appreciation of their binding 
force upon his conduct; and, finally, in this way only will 
the habits acquired in the school be habits which con- 
tribute to personal and social efficiency, — the final test 
of education. 

Readings 

Shaw, School Hygiene, pp. 1-156. 

Burrage and Bailey, School Sanitation and Decoration^ pp. 1-93. 

Rowe, Physical Nature of the Child. 

Dresslar, School Hygiene. 

Terman, The Hygiene of the School Child. 

O'Shea, Dynamic Factors in Education, pp. 246-273. 

Button, Social Phases of Education, pp. 13-32. 

School Management, pp. 1 27-131, 175-184. 
Bagley, Classroom Management, pp. 214-224. 
Dewey, School and Society, pp. 77-110, 27-30. 

Ethical Principles Underlying Education, pp. 15-18. 
Tompkins, School Management, pp. 10-15, 196-218. 
Betts, Social Principles of Education, pp. 291-305. 
Strayer, The Teaching Process, pp. 129-138. 
King, Social Aspects of Education, pp. 357-398. 
Earhart, Types of Teaching, pp. 132-148. 
Morehouse, The Discipline of the School, pp. 1-109. 



INDEX 



Acquisitiveness, an instinct related to 
impulse of self-preservation, 57. 

Activity, the result of action of primal 
impulses, 71-72. 

Aim, step of development of motive and 
statement of, in inductive perceptual 
method of instruction, 209-212; in 
inductive conceptual method, 219- 
221; in deductive perceptual method, 
228-229; in deductive conceptual 
method, 232-233; desirability of 
giving the pupil's and the teacher's, 
in a lesson plan, 242. 

Aim of education, from side of society, 
168-172; from side of individual, 
173-176; unity in, 176; of elementary 
education, 176-180; means for realiz- 
ing, found in instruction and school 
organization, 182. 

Aim of society, 18-19; and social ideals, 
19-20; ideals of the individual and 
the, 21. 

Ambition, an instinct related to im- 
pulse of self-preservation, 57. 

Ancients, social meaning of education 
appreciated by the, 163. 

Appetite of the senses, the first mani- 
festation of the intellectual impulse, 
64. 

Application of new knowledge, stage of, 
in inductive perceptual process of 
learning, 140; in inductive concep>- 
tual process, 144; in deductive per- 
ceptual process, 149; in deductive 
conceptual process, 154. 

Arithmetic, inductive perceptual les- 
son plan in, 244-247; deductive per- 
ceptual lesson plan, 256-259; in- 
ductive conceptual lesson plan, 262- 
265. 

Art, as a factor in social development, 
II-I2; a material of culture, 35. 



Artistic impulse, a primal impulse, 56; 
characteristics of the, 65-68. 

Artistic phase of societary life, 171. 

Aspects of psychical life, 52-53, 

Assimilative level of control, 78. 

Assimilative process of learning, 99. 

Assimilative stage, of will development, 
94, 122; of development of the in- 
tellect, 129. 

Attention, power of sustained, developed 
imder action of social selection, 26. 

Bases of direction and control of im- 
pulses on different levels, 77-81. 

Beauty, appreciation of, identified with 
the artistic impulse, 65. 

Birds, force of primal impulses illus- 
trated by, 71. 

Bender, quoted on instinctive character 
of religion, 69. 

Character, defined, 122; will develop- 
ment and development of, 122-123; 
intellectual development and, 129- 
130. 

Child, aspects of psychical life of the, 
52-53; impulse of sociality in the, 
62; importance of trait of imitation, 
64-65 ; comparatively late appearance 
of moral-religious impulse, 70; psy- 
chical development of the, 92 ff.; de- 
termination of elementary school 
curriculum by the, 199-204; guides 
in adaptation of curriculum to the, 
201-202; ways in which curriculum 
is determined by the, 202-204; as a 
factor conditioning organization of 
the elementary school, 285-288. 

Cognitive functions, development of, 
124-125; relation between develop- 
ment of content and development of, 
125-127; definition of, 127-128; use 



297 



298 



INDEX 



and development of, particular and 
not general, 128. 

Combativeness, as a primitive instinct 
of man, 27-28; impulse of self- 
preservation at basis of, 57. 

Community conditions, determination 
of elementary school curriculum by, 
194-199. 

Concepts, class and particular, 11 2-1 13. 

Conceptual level of control, 78; the in- 
tellect and the direction of impulse on 
the, 79-81. 

Conceptual processes of learning, 106- 

115. 

Conceptual stage in development of 
the intellect, 129. 

Conceptual thought, products of, 80. 

Conceptual will, period of development 
of the, 94; distinctive elements in 
period of the, 95-96. 

Constructiveness, an instinct related to 
impulse of self-preservation, 57. 

Content, presupposed by control and 
direction of impulse, 120; rests upon 
the learning processes, 1 20-1 21; de- 
velopment of, 123-124; relation 
between development of, and devel- 
opment of cognitive functions, 125- 
127. 

Control, the intellect the medium of, 
76-77; four levels of, 77-78. 

Cooperative life, inclinations to, result- 
ing from impulse of sociality, 62-63. 

Criminal class, viewed as outside the 
limitations of social ideals, 46-47. 

Culture, materials of, 34-36; materials 
of, as materials of development, 36- 
37; society and the materials of, 
37-40. 

Curiosity, an early manifestation of the 
intellectual impulse, 64. 

Curriculum of elementary school, 181 fE.; 
materials of, 182-183; factors de- 
termining, 183; determination of, by 
a given society as a whole, 183-194; 
determination of, by given com- 
mimity or local conditions, 194-199; 
determination by the child, 199-202; 
ways in which the child determines, 
202-204; determination of, by so- 
ciety versus its determination by the 
child, 205-207. 



Data, stages of acquisition and elabora- 
tion of: in inductive perceptual pro- 
cess of learning, 136-139; in induc- 
tive conceptual process, 141-143; in 
deductive perceptual process, 145- 
148; in deductive conceptual process, 

150-153- 

Deductive conceptual process of learn- 
ing, 110-113; rise of need and of 
motive in, 149-150; acquisition of 
data, 150-151; recall of old ideas, 
151— 152; elaboration of data, 152- 
153; synthesis and inference, 153- 
154; application or use, 154. 

Deductive conceptual method of in- 
struction, 232-237. 

Deductive perceptual process of learn- 
ing, 102-104; rise of need and of 
motive, 144-145; acquisition of data, 
145-146; recall of old ideas, 146-147; 
elaboration of data, 147-148; syn- 
thesis and inference, 148-149; appli- 
cation or use, 149. 

Deductive perceptual method of in- 
struction, 228-232; lesson plans 
under, 256-262. 

Development, capacity for, a charac- 
teristic of the individual, 24 ; de- 
pendent upon materials of culture, 
33-34; materials of culture as materi- 
als of, 36-37- 

Dewey, Ethical Principles Underlying 
Education, quoted, 124-125; on the 
social significance of education, 165; 
on education as the fundamental 
method of social progress and reform, 
166. 

Direction of impulse, the intellect the 
medium of, 76-77; four levels of, 
77-78. 



Economic phase of society, 169. 

Education, an interest of both the in- 
dividual and society, 49; conditioned 
by social needs, 49-50; how the high- 
est interests of the individual are con- 
served by a socially determined, 50; 
two universally applicable principles 
of> 50-51; conditioned, to an extent, 
by the nature of the individual's 
psychical life, 52; primary conditions 



INDEX 



299 



for formal, supplied by the intellec- 
tual impulse, 65; conclusions con- 
cerning, from study of psychical 
nature of the child, 89-QO, 132-133; 
educational principles applicable to 
fostering and determining psychical 
development of the child, 133-134; 
principles applicable in view of na- 
ture of the learning processes, 156- 
157; meaning of, 162 flf.; meaning 
from side of society, 163-166; mean- 
ing from side of the individual, i66- 
168; relation between meaning of, 
to society and meaning of, to the 
individual, 168; aim of, from side of 
society, 168-172; aim from side of the 
individual, 173-176; aim of elemen- 
tary, 176-180; aim of, realized through 
instruction and school organization, 
182, 285-296; use of lesson plan as a 
means of, 240-283. Sec also Ele- 
mentary education. 

Egotism, impulse of self-preservation at 
basis of, 57. 

Elaboration, step of: in inductive per- 
ceptual method of instruction, 215- 
217; in inductive conceptual method 
of instruction, 224-225; in deductive 
perceptual method of instruction, 
230-231; in deductive conceptual 
method of instruction, 234-236. 

Elementary education, meaning and 
aim of, 161 fT., 176-180. 

Elementary school, curriculum of, 
181 ff.; determination of curriculum 
by society, 183-199; determination 
of curriculum by the child, 199-204; 
determination of curriculum by so- 
ciety versus its determination by the 
child, 205-207; methods of instruc- 
tion, 208-239; use of lesson plan in, 
240-283; organization of the, 284 2.; 
factors conditioning organization, 
285; the child as a factor, 286-288; 
instruction as a factor, 288-289; 
society as a factor, 289-296. 

Elements of the will, the, 54-56; char- 
acterization of, 56-70. 

Emulation, an instinct related to im- 
pulse of self-preservation, 57. 

Environment, influence of, upon the in- 
dividual, 23-24, 40, 43-45; function 



of the intellect, in freeing the indi- 
vidual from his, 82. 
Experience, meaning of, 96-97; im- 
plied in the acquisition of knowledge, 
97; methods of getting, 97-98; must 
be given value if knowledge is to be 
gained, 99; processes through which 
meaning and value are given to, or 
learning, 99-106. 

Factors in social development, 11-13; 
source of artificial factors, 13-15. 

Falkenberg, History oj Modern Phi- 
losophy, quoted, 36. 

Feeling, as one of the aspects of psychical 
life, 52-53- 

Fighting instinct, subduing of, an illus- 
tration of transformation of human 
nature under action of social selec- 
tion, 27-28. 

Froebel, quoted on aim of education, 
173- 

Galton, Hereditary Genius, quotation 

from, 28-29. 
General spirit, a material of culture, 35; 

what is signified by, 35-36. 
Genius, viewed as an individual above 

the usual limitations of social ideals, 

46, 47- 
Geography, inductive perceptual lesson 

plan in home, 252-256; deductive 

conceptual lesson plan in, 279-282. 
Grammar, deductive conceptual lesson 

plan in, 275-278. 
Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, quoted, 30. 
Gregariousness, impulse of sociaUty as 

manifested by, 62. 
Group instinct, as a manifestation of 

the impulse of sociality, 62. 

Hajckel, The Evolution of Man, quoted, 
60. 

Herbartians, mistake of, in making in- 
terest an end of instruction, 201-202. 

Heredity, conditioning of his nature by, 
a distinctive characteristic of the in- 
dividual, 23, 40-42; function of the 
intellect in freeing the individual from 
bondage to, 83. 

Hinsdale, article by, quoted, 128. 



300 



INDEX 



History, inductive conceptual lesson 

plan in, 271-275. 
Howerth, on the societary function of 

education, 166. 
Humanistic instinct, impulse of sociality 

as manifested by the, 62. 

Ideals, social, and the aim of society, 
iQ-20; source of social, in the superior 
individual, 20-21; acceptance of 
social, by the individual, 45. 

Ideas, capacity to learn by, one of the 
higher powers of the human intel- 
lect, 6; concrete, as the basis of di- 
rection of impulse upon the percep- 
tual level, 78-79; recall of old, in 
deductive perceptual process of learn- 
ing, 146-147; recall of old, in deduct- 
ive conceptual process of learning, 
151-152. 

Imitation, as a manifestation of the in- 

. tellectual impulse, 64-65. 

Impulse, direction and control of, 78-80, 
1 18-120; the giving of content to, 
116-118; progressively better con- 
trol and direction of, implied by will 
development, 1 20-1 21. 

Impulses, as elements of the will, S4~5S; 
distinguished from instincts, 55; 
primal, are forces impelling the in- 
dividual to activity, 71-72; principal 
forms or phases of life determined by, 
72-73; the intellect the medium for 
directing and controlling, 76-77; 
four levels of direction and control, 
77-78; knowledge of, at each period 
of child life necessary in adaptation 
of elementary school curriculum, 
200-201. 

Individual, relation of the, to society 
and its development, 3, 5 flf., 11 ff., 
23 flf., 32; how existence and con- 
tinuation of society are conditioned 
by the, lo-ii; source of artificial 
factors of social progress found in 
progressive creativeness of, 14; the 
sole agent in the initiation of human 
progress, 15-16; dependence of social 
progress upon, 17-18; the agent of 
social perfection, 21-22; three notable 
characteristics of, 23-24; society and 
inherited attributes of the, 25-29; 



development of, dependent upon ma- 
terials of culture, 33-34; relation of 
society to the materials of culture 
and, 37-40; development of, condi- 
tioned by society, 40; factors deter- 
mining aim of, 40; life of, conditioned 
by heredity, 40-42; influence of 
factor of psychical environment, 43- 
45; self-realization the aim of, 45- 
47; reciprocal relation between so- 
ciety and, 48; welfare of, the inter- 
est of society, 49; highest interests 
of, are conserved by education so- 
cially determined, 50; meaning of 
education from side of, 166-168; 
aim of education from side of, 173- 
176. 

Inductive conceptual method of instruc- 
tion, 219-228; lesson plans under, 
262-275. 

Inductive conceptual process of learn- 
ing, 106-109, 140; rise of need and of 
motive, 140-141; acquisition of data, 
141; elaboration of data, 141-143; 
synthesis and inference, 143-144; 
application or use, 144. 

Inductive perceptual method of in- 
struction, 209-219; lesson plans 
imder, 244-256. 

Inductive perceptual process of learn- 
ing, 99-102, 13s flf.; rise of need and 
of motive, 135-136; acquisition of 
data, 136-137; elaboration of data, 
I37~i39; synthesis and inference, 
139-140; application or use, 140. 

Industrial phase of societary life, 169, 

Inference. See Synthesis and inference. 

Instincts, distinction between impulses 
and, 55; that are found among dis- 
tinctive elements in period of the per- 
ceptual will, 94 ; found in period of the 
conceptual will, 95-96; vmderstand- 
ing of those distinctive of each period 
of child life necessary in adaptation 
of elementary school curriculum, 200- 
201. 

Instruction, aim of education by means 
of, 182; methods of elementary 
school, 208 flf. ; inductive perceptual 
method, 209-219; inductive concep- 
tual method, 219-228; deductive 
perceptual method, 228-232; deduct- 



INDEX 



301 



ive conceptual method, 232-237; 
methods of, abridged and unabridged, 
238-239; use of lesson plans in, 240- 
283; as a factor in organization of 
the elementary school, 288-2S9. 

Intellect, higher powers of, as the dis- 
tinguishing mark of man, 5; self- 
consciousness and the capacity to 
learn by ideas important among the 
higher pxjwers of the, 6; social life 
made possible by higher powers of 
the human, 6-7; the motive for social 
life suppUed by the, 9-10; the seat 
of the artificial factors in social de- 
velopment, 13-14; as one of the two 
main aspects of the psychical life of 
the child, 52-53; meaning of the, 75- 
76; to be distinguished from the 
intellectual impulse, 76; as the me- 
dium of direction and control, 76-77; 
and direction and control of impulse 
on the perceptual level, 78-79; and 
direction and control of impulse on 
the conceptual level, 79-81; function 
of, to enable life to give expression 
and determination to itself, 81-82; 
significance of the, for life, 82-83; 
a servant of the will, 83-84 ; place of 
the, in the life of the individual, 84- 
85; identity of function of, and of 
function of knowledge, 87-88; devel- 
opment of, and secondary work of 
education, 90; second of factors in 
psychical nature of the child to de- 
velop, 92; acquisition of knowledge 
and development of the, 1231!.; 
stages in development of the, 129; 
development of, and character, 129- 
130; development of, and the will, 
130-13 1 ; aim of education in regard 
to development of the, 175-176; ad- 
justment of elementary school cur- 
riculum to the, 199-201. 

Intellectual bond a necessity to social 
Ufe among men, 8. 

Intellectual impulse, a primal impulse, 
56; characteristics of the, 63-65; to be 
distinguished from the intellect, 76. 

Intellectual phase of societary life, 170- 

171- 
Interest, as a guide in adaptation of 
curriculum to life of child, 201-202. 



James, William, works by, quoted, 

65, 69, 70, 83. 
Judgment, the will and, 84. 
Justice, sense of, necessary to social life, 

6-8. 

Kant, quoted on aim of education, 173. 

Knowledge, the determination of, 85- 
86; function of, to serve the purposes 
of life, 86-87; identity of function of, 
with the function of the intellect when 
viewed as the instrument of direction 
and control, 87-88; place of, in life, 
as the means to the expression and 
actuaUzation of life, 88; process of 
acquiring and using, 96 ff.; defined 
as experience given meaning and 
value, 97; implications of acquisition 
of, or learning, 97-99; relation be- 
tween acquisition and use of, and the 
development of the will, 116 flF.; 
acquisition of, and development of 
the intellect, 123 ff. 

Learning, the process through which ex- 
perience is acquired and worked over 
into knowledge, 97; impUcations of, 
97-99; four processes of, 99, 135 ff.; 
inductive perceptual process, 99-102, 
135-140; deductive perceptual pro- 
cess, 102-104, 144-149; relation be- 
tween processes of perceptual, 104- 
105; products and results of percep- 
tual process, 105-106; inductive con- 
ceptual process, 106-109, 140-144; 
deductive conceptual process, iio- 
113, 149-154; relation between 
processes of conceptual, 113-114; 
products and results of conceptual 
process, 114-115; the processes of, 
and psychical development, 115; im- 
pulse given to content through pro- 
cesses of, 116-117; control and direc- 
tion of impulse implies only processes 
involved in, 120; processes of, 
abridged and unabridged, 155; range 
and period of operation of processes, 
155-156; educational principles ap- 
plicable, in view of nature of processes 
of, IS&-I57- 

Lesson plans, meaning and kinds of, 
240; characteristic of good, 241-243; 



302 



INDEX 



necessity for, 243; question of plan- 
ning for thought-wholes or for single 
lessons, 243-244; illustrative induct- 
ive perceptual, 244-256; deductive 
perceptual, 256-262; inductive con- 
ceptual, 262-264; deductive concep- 
tual, 275-282; abridged and un- 
abridged, 282-283. 

Life, the will and, 72-75; relation of 
the intellect to, 75-76; significance of 
the intellect for, 82-83; place of the 
intellect in the individual's, 84-85; 
knowledge the means to the expres- 
sion and actualization of, 88. 

Literature, as a factor in social develop- 
ment, 11-12; a material of culture, 

35- 
Local conditions, determination of ele- 
mentary school cvurriculum by, 194- 
199. 

Man, higher intellectual powers the dis- 
tinguishing mark of, 5; motive for 
social life supplied to, by the intel- 
lect, 9-10; meaning and source of 
the unalienable rights of, 29-33; ef- 
fects of impulse of sociality in, 60-63. 

Marshall, Instinct and Reason, quoted, 
69. 

Materials of culture. See Culture. 

Memory, control of, by the will, 84. 

Mental content, development of, 123- 
124. 

Mental development, law of, 128-129. 

Method, importance of provision for a, 
in a lesson plan, 241. 

Methods of elementary school instruc- 
tion, 208-239. 

Morality, instinctive character of, 68. 

Moral-religious impulse, a primal im- 
pulse, 56; characteristics of the, 68- 
70. 

Moral-religious phase of societary life, 
172. 

Morgan, Psychology for Teachers, 
quoted, 96-97. 

Motive, step of rise of, in inductive per- 
ceptual process of learning, 135-136; 
in inductive conceptual process of 
learning, 140-141; in deductive per- 
ceptual process of learning, 144-145; 
in deductive conceptual process of 



learning, 149-150; step of develop- 
ment of, in inductive perceptual 
method of instruction, 210-212; in 
inductive conceptual method of in- 
struction, 219-221; in deductive per- 
ceptual method of instruction, 228- 
229; in deductive conceptual method 
of instruction, 232-233. 

Natural science, as a factor in social de- 
velopment, 11-12; a material of cul- 
ture, 35. 

Need, origin in a, of process of inductive 
perceptual learning, 135-136; step 
of rise of, in inductive conceptual 
process of learning, 140-141; in de- 
ductive perceptual process of learn- 
ing, 145-146; in deductive conceptual 
process of learning, 149-150. 

Number, primary, illustrative inductive 
perceptual lesson plan in, 244-247; 
deductive perceptual lesson plan, 
256-259. 

Organization of the elementary school, 
284 flf.; factors conditioning, 285; the 
child as a factor, 286-288; instruc- 
tion as a factor, 288-289; society as 
a factor, 289-296. 

Orientals, social meaning of education 
the only meaning understood by, 163. 

Paulsen, Introduction to Philosophy, 
quoted, 73, 75, 85. 

Perception, control of, by the will, 84. 

Perceptual learning, relation between 
processes of, 104-105; products and 
results of process of, 105-106. 

Perceptual level of control, 78; the in- 
tellect and direction of impulse on the, 
78-79. 

Perceptual process of learning, 99. 

Perceptual stage, of will development, 
94-95, 122; in development of the 
intellect, 129. 

Perez, First Three Years of Childhood, 
quoted, 68. 

Pestalozzi, quoted on aim of education, 

173- 
Presentation, step of: in inductive per- 
ceptual method of instruction, 213- 
215; in inductive conceptual method 



INDEX 



303 



of instruction, 222-224; in deductive 
perceptual method of instruction, 
229-230; in deductive conceptual 
method of instruction, 233-234. 

Primal characteristics of the will, 70-72. 

Primal impulses, what constitute, 55- 
56; forces which impel the individual 
to activity, 71-72; principal forms 
or phases of life determined by, 72- 

73- 
. Primary work, inductive perceptual 
lesson plans in, 244-252, 256-262. 

Processes of learning, 99-106, 135-154; 
abridged and unabridged, 155; range 
and period of operation, 155; educa- 
tional principles applicable, in view 
of nature of, 156-157. 

Psychical development of the child, 32- 
33, 92 G.; periods in, 93-96; process 
of, 96-115; the processes of learning 
and, 115; unity in process of, 131; 
educational inferences, 132-133; edu- 
cational principles, 133-134. 

Psychical environment, the individual 
as disposed by, 43-45. 

Psychical life, education conditioned by 
the nature of the individual's, 52; 
two aspects of the child's, are that of 
the intellect and that of the will, 52- 
53; educational inferences and prin- 
ciples from study of child's, 89-90. 

Question and answer, method of, in 
step of elaboration in the inductive 
perceptual method of instruction, 
215-217; in the inductive concep- 
tual method of instruction, 224-225. 

Race-preservation, a primal impulse, 
56; characterization of impulse of, 
58-60. 

Reading, inductive perceptual lesson 
plan in primary, 248-252; inductive 
conceptual lesson plan, 266-270. 

Reason, control of, by the will, 84. 

Reasoning, power of, an illustration of 
transformation of human nature 
under action of social selection, 26-27. 

Recall, step of: in inductive perceptual 
method of instruction, 212-213; in 
inductive conceptual method, 221- 
222; in deductive perceptual method. 



230; in deductive conceptual method, 
234- 

Religion, as a factor in social develop- 
ment, 11-12; a material of culture, 
35; connection between sex-instinct 
and, 60; instinctive character of, 
68-69. 

Rivalry, an instinct related to impulse 
of self-preservation, 57. 

School. See Elementary school. 

School organization, aim of education 
realized by means of instruction and, 
182. See Organization. 

Schopenhauer, Fourfold Root and Will in 
Nature, quoted, 75. 

Schurman, article by, quoted, 129. 

Sciences, studies of elementary school 
not to be regarded as, 186-187. 

Self-consciousness, one of the higher 
powers of the human intellect, 6. 

Self-development, function of the intel- 
lect regarding the individual's, 81-82. 

Selfishness, an instinct related to im- 
pulse of self-preservation, 57. 

Self-preservation, a primal impulse, 55; 
characterization of impulse of, 56- 
58; sociological import, 58. 

Self-realization, seeking after the high- 
est, a characteristic of the individual, 
24, 45-47; degree attainable by the 
individual, 47-48. 

Senses, satisfaction of, the first mani- 
festation of the intellectual impulse, 

64. 

Sex-instinct, significance of the, 58-60. 

Social development, 11 fif. See Society. 

Socialistic instinct, impulse of sociahty 
as manifested by the, 62. 

Sociality, element of, necessary to exist- 
ence of society, 6-8;. viewed as a 
primal impulse, 56; characteristics of, 
60-63. 

Social phase of societary life, 169-170. 

Social progress, dependence of, upon 
individuals, 17-18. 

Social science, as a factor in social de- 
velopment, 11-12; a material of 
culture, 35. 

Society, defined, 3; characteristics as 
a psychical organization, 4; end or 
purpose of, 4-5 ; dependence of exist- 



304 



INDEX 



ence of, upon higher powers of the 
human intellect, 6-7; intellectual 
bond among men necessary to, 8; 
the individual and the development 
of, II fi., 15-16; meaning of develop- 
ment of, 11; natural and artificial 
factors in development of, 11-13; 
source of artificial factors, 13-15; 
the individual as the agent of develop- 
ment of, 15-16; human welfare the 
test of development of, 16-17; the 
aim of, to meet the needs of its mem- 
bers and to foster individual develop- 
ment, 18-19; the aim of, and social 
ideals, 19-20; source of ideals of, 
found in superior individuals, 20-21; 
ideals of the individual and the aim 
of, 21; the individual the agent of 
perfection of, 21-22; discussion of 
relation of, to the individual, 23 ff.; 
and the inherited attributes of the 
individual, 25-29; and the Uving of 
human life, 29-32; and the develop- 
ment of the individual, 32-40; and 
the aim of the individual, 40-48; 
reciprocal relation between the indi- 
vidual and, 48; welfare of, the inter- 
est of the individual, 49; interrela- 
tion of education and, 49-51; form 
and structure of, conditioned to a 
degree by impulse of self-preserva- 
tion, 58; function of the artistic im- 
pulse in, 67-68; attainment of an 
idea of, with power of conceptual 
thinking, 80; meaning of education 
from side of, 163-166; aim of educa- 
tion from side of, 168-172; deter- 
mination of elementary school cur- 
riculum by, 183-199; as a factor in 
organization of the elementary school, 
289-296. 
Spencer, Herbert, quoted on the intel- 
lect, 76; on function of education, 

173. 

Starbuck, Psychology and Religion, 
cited, 70. 

Stephen, Science of Ethics, quoted, 68. 

Studies. See Curriculum. 

Subject matter, separation of, from 
method followed in teaching the les- 
son, 241-242. 

Sustained attention, development of 



power of, under action of social selec- 
tion, 26. 

Sutherland, Origin and Growth of the 
Moral Instinct, quoted, 68. 

Sympathy, part played by, in making 
social life possible, 6-8. 

Synthesis and inference, step of, in in- 
ductive perceptual process of learning, 
139-140; in inductive conceptual 
process, 143-144; in deductive per- 
ceptual process, 148-149; in deduct- 
ive conceptual process, 153-154; 
in inductive perceptual method of 
instruction, 217-218; in inductive 
conceptual method, 225-226; in 
deductive perceptual method, 231; 
in deductive conceptual method, 236- 

237- 
Systematic level of control, 78. 
Systematic stage, of will development, 

122; in development of the intellect, 

129. 

Test of social development found in 

human welfare, 16-17. 
Thought, power of, an illustration of 

transformation of human nature im- 

der action of social selection, 26-27; 

appearance of power of, on conceptual 

level of self-conscious life, 79-80. 
Thought- wholes of instruction, method 

of dealing with, in lesson plan, 243- 

244. 
Truth, love of: the highest form of the 

intellectual impulse, 63; is akin to 

curiosity, 64. 

Unalienable rights of man, meaning and 
source of the, 29-32. 

Use of newly acquired knowledge, stage 
of: in inductive perceptual process of 
learning, 140; in inductive concep- 
tual process, 144; in deductive per- 
ceptual process, 149; in deductive 
conceptual process, 154. 

Verification and use, step of: in induct- 
ive perceptual method of instruc- 
tion, 218-219; in inductive concep- 
tual method, 227-228; in deductive 
perceptual method, 231-232; in de- 
ductive conceptual method, 237. 



INDEX 



305 



Ward, Dynamic Sociology, quoted, 166. 

Will, the, as one of the two main aspects 
of the psychical Ufe of the child, 52- 
53; meaning of, 54; elements of, 
54-56; characterization of elements 
oi, 56-70; primary characteristics of, 
70-72; relation of, to life, 72-74; 
place of, in life, 74-75; the intellect 
a servant of, 83-84; development of, 
and primary work of education, 8g- 
90; first of factors in psychical nature 
of the child to develop, 92; periods 
in development of, 93-94; and men- 



tal elements of different periods, 94- 
96; relation between acquisition and 
use of knowledge and development of, 
116 ff.; process of development of, 
1 20-1 2 1 ; law of development of, 121- 
122; development of, and character 
development, 122-123; and intellec- 
tual development, 130-131; adjust- 
ment of elementary school curriculum 
to, 199-201. 
Work, predisposition to, an illustration 
of transformation of human nature 
under action of social selection, 28-29. 



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HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

By Henry E. Bourne and E. J. Benton 

PROMINENCE is given to economic and social history and to the 
great westward movement; military details are subordinate; 
matters of mere traditional value have been eliminated, thus leaving 
space for a more full treatment of matters of present importance. The 
book is pre-eminently fitted to prepare pupils now in grammar schools 
for intelligent entrance upon the duties of citizenship. It is noteworthy 
that the authors have included an adequate treatment of the West, 
which previous books have generally neglected. The treatment of the 
South is sympathetic and informing. The book is unique. This judg- 
ment applies not only to the form in which it is presented, but also to 
the type of service that it renders to the rising generation. 

Cloth. Illustrations and maps. 698 pages. $1.00. 

D. C. HEATH & CO., Boston, New York, Chicago 



Education 



ADMINISTRATION AND DISCIPLINE 

Chancellor's Our Schools: their Administration and Supervision. $1.50 

Chancellor's Our City Schools: their Direction and Management. 1.25 

Davenport's Education for Efficiency 1.00 

Hollister's High School Administration 1.50 

Morehouse's The Discipline of the School 1.25 

Stout's The High School 1 .50 

EDDCATI.ONAL CLASSICS 

Ascham's The Schoolmaster (Arber) 1.25 

Franklin's Educational Ideal (Cloyd) 1.00 

Kant On Education (Churton) 75 

Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude. Paper, .25. Cloth 90 

Rousseau's Emile. Paper, .25. Cloth 90 

Thompson's Day Dreams of a Schoolmaster 1.25 

HERBARTIANISM 

Adams's Herbartian Psychology Applied to Education 1.00 

Felkin's Introduction to Herbart's Science and Practice of Edu- 
cation 1 .00 

Herbart's Science of Education. From Allgemeine Pddagogik . . . 1.00 

Lange's Apperception (DeGarmo) 1.00 

Uf er's Introduction to the Pedagogy of Herbart 90 

HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Compayre's History of Pedagogy 1.75 

Gill's Systems of Education 1.25 

Munroe's The Educational Ideal 1.00 

Taylor's Syllabus of the History of Education 1.00 

METHODS OF TEACHING 

DeGarmo's Essentials of Method G5 

Hall's Methods of Teaching History 1.50 

History Syllabus for Secondary Schools 1.25 

Methods of Teaching Modern Languages 72 

Scott's Organic Education 1.25 

Sheldon-Barnes's Studies in Historical Method 90 

PSYCHOLOGY 

Compayre's Psychology Applied to Education 90 

Dewey's How We Think 1.00 

Lindner's Empirical Psychology (Translated by DeGarmo) 1.00 

Lukens's Thought and Memory 1.00 

Radestock's Habit in Education 75 

Tracy's Psychology of Childhood 1.20 

Sec also our list of books on Pedagogy of Elementary Education 

D. C. HEATH & CO., Boston, New York, Chicago 



Pedagogy of Elementary Education 

Morehouse's The Discipline of the School $1.25 

EDUCATIONAL CLASSICS 

Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude. Paper, .25. Cloth 90 

Rousseau's Emile. Paper, .25. Cloth 90 

HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Compayre's History of Pedagogy 1.75 

Gill's Systems of Education 1.25 

Hollis's The Oswego Movement 1.00 

Munroe's The Educational Ideal 1.00 

Taylor's Syllabus of the History of Education 1».00 

KINDERGARTEN 

Comenius's The School of Infancy 1.00 

Herf ord's The Student's Froebel 75 

Malleson's Early Training of Children 75 

Marwedel's Conscious Motherhood 2.00 

Peabody's Lectures to Kindergartners 1.00 

Rosmini's Method in Education 1.50 

METHODS OF TEACHING — GENERAL 

Barrett's Practical Pedagogy 1 .00 

Compayre's Lectures on Teaching 1.75 

DeGarmo's Essentials of Method G5 

Scott's Organic Education 1.25 

METHODS OF TEACHING — SPECIAL 

Clapp's Observation Lessons in Minerals 32 

Clapp and Huston's Composition Work in Grammar Grades 15 

Goldwasser's Methods in English 1.00 

Hall's How to Teach Reading 25 

Hanus's Geometry in the Grammar School 25 

Laing's Manual of Reading. Revised 1.00 

Scott's Nature Study and the Child 1.50 

Sheldon-Barnes's Studies in Historical Method 90 

Spalding's The Problem of Elementary Composition 50 

Walsh's Practical Methods in Arithmetic 1.25 

PSYCHOLOGY 

Compayre's Psychology Applied to Education 90 

Dewey's How We Think 1.00 

Lange's Apperception (DeGarmo) 1.00 

Radestock's Habit in Education 75 

Tracy's Psychology of Childhood 1.20 

SCHOOL HYGIENE 

Burrage and Bailey's School Sanitation and Decoration 1.50 

Newsholme's School Hygiene. Paper, .25. Cloth 75 

See also our list of books on Education 

D. C. HEATH & CO., Boston, New York, Chicago 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 




